Tevin Farmer is looking to pull a big upset on Nov. 16 when he faces William Zepeda, and knows he has a shot to derail the unbeaten favorite’s planned 2025 fight with WBC lightweight titlist Shakur Stevenson.
The 34-year-old Farmer (33-6-1, 8 KO) hasn’t won a fight of consequence this decade, with his last notable wins coming in 2019 over Jono Carroll and Guillaume Frenois, and he’s never beaten someone as highly-regarded as Zepeda (31-0, 27 KO) currently is.
But he sees a stylistic matchup as the reason he’s here, and the reason he can win.
“They say me and Shakur got similar styles, and I’m the guy that they (chose) to see how good he does, to see if he’s ready for Shakur, but I can promise you he will not make it to Shakur,” Farmer said this week.
Farmer’s last fight came on July 13, when he lost to Raymond Muratalla, a rising potential contender himself. The former super featherweight titleholder was competitive, but came up short on the cards.
“I feel like this is a do-or-die for me. Last fight was a do-or-die for me and it didn’t go my way, unfortunately, but I feel like this time is do-or-die for real-for real, we’re gonna die if we have to.”
Zepeda, 28, is the WBC mandatory challenger for Stevenson, and the two are expected to meet in early 2025 if Zepeda handles business in a few weeks against Farmer.