Boxing commentator Tim Bradley is anxious to see how well highly ranked lightweight contender Raymond Muratalla looks tonight in his ten-round fight against former IBF super featherweight champion Tevin Farmer in their headliner on ESPN+ at the Pearl Concert Theater at Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas.
Tonight’s event will be shown live on ESPN+ at 6:50 p.m. ET/3:50 p.m. PT
A Main Event Upgrade
#2 WBC Muratalla (20-0, 16 KOs) and Farmer (33-5-1, 8 KOs) were moved up from the co-feature slot to the main event last Friday after IBF/WBO middleweight champion Janibek Alimkhanuly was hospitalized due to a dehydration problem while attempting to cut weight for his now-canceled title defense against Andrei Mikhailovich in the main event.
Top Rank was fortunate to have an outstanding chief support bout between Muratalla and Farmer to be moved to the main event.
Some boxing fans believe Muratalla-Farmer should have been the headliner all along, as it’s a more exciting fight between recognizable fighters than the Janibek vs. Mikhailovich match would have been.
Tim Bradley echoes those thoughts, believing Muartalla vs. Farmer was always the best fight in tonight’s career.
Farmer’s Resurgence
“I thought personally, looking at the card, that’s the actual fight of the night,” said boxing analyst Tim Bradley to Fighthype about his feeling that Raymond Muratalla vs. Tevin Farmer was the best fight of Tonight’s card, even before Janibek Alimkhanuly – Andrei Mikhailovich was scratched.
It was obvious from the moment Top Rank revealed the Janibek vs. Mikhailovich card that Muratalla-Farmer should have been the main event. Janiibek is an excellent fighter, but he’s arguably not as popular as Muratalla, and it doesn’t matter that he holds two world titles.
Muratalla is more interesting to watch and in a better weight class at lightweight. The middleweight division is dead, and nothing there. Moving forward, Janibek, with his weight problems, needs to move up to super middleweight, expand his career, and not jeopardize future Top Rank cards by dealing with medical issues trying to get down to 160.
“We’ve seen Tevin in the past, a former [IBF super featherweight] world champion,” said Bradley. “Farmer started really late in the game, but he’s had success. He’s a very skillful guy. He’s been kind of behind the scenes for a while with promotional and COVID and things like that.”
Before Farmer’s twelve-round unanimous loss to Josepn ‘JoJo’ Diaz on January 30, 2020, he was a popular fighter in demand and heading towards big things at 130. But after that loss, Farmer disappeared for three years before resuming his career in 2023.
Farmer has since won his last three fights, albeit against low-level opposition, but he’s got the talent to make things interesting tonight against the still-inexperienced 27-year-old Muratalla.
“He’s come back and had three fights since his loss to JoJo Diaz, and he’s dangerous,” said Bradley. “The kid has got skills, and I feel he’s extremely mature. I think he’s been in big fights before.
“This is nothing for him. He understands he has got to get past the young gun [Muratalla] in order to have an opportunity to fight for a world championship in the 135-lb weight class, which is hot right now with Tank, Shakur, and all these guys there with Keyshawn Davis and Abdullah [Mason].”
It would be a big upset if Farmer, 33, defeats Muratalla, but at least Top Rank would know he’s not worth pursuing after this. Muratalla has mostly looked good, but he struggled in his last fight against Xolisani Ndongeni on March 29th, laboring to an unimpressive ten-round unanimous decision. That performance from Muratalla was a red flag that he might not be the fighter that Top Rank had thought.
Muratalla’s Potential
“It’s a dangerous fight, but I feel Muratalla is ready for this moment now. I think Top Rank has done a good job of building him and giving him different styles and things like that from southpaws on. I think his amateur pedigree as well, coming through the system, even all the great sparring he’s getting at Robert Garcia’s boxing academy,” said Bradley about Muratalla.
If Muratalla looks lackluster against Farmer or if he loses, that might be the clincher for Top Rank, as he doesn’t possess the talent to ever win a world title at a lightweight. On paper, Farmer is someone that Muratalla should beat without any problems, but again, he might not be the guy.
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