By David P. Greisman

Barclays Center, Brooklyn, New York - Tevin Farmer stepped up to lightweight and thoroughly outboxed Ivan Redkach en route to a wide unanimous decision win.

One judge had it 99-89, while the other two had it 98-90. Those scores reflected a point deduction from Farmer for a low blow and a point taken from Redkach for an intentional head butt.

Redkach came out aggressively, but Farmer quickly rendered Redkach’s aggression ineffective. He dodged punches both by moving away and by ducking and weaving while in the pocket. Often when he made Redkach miss, he made Redkach miss by miles, further demoralizing him. And Farmer began to land in combination, adding injury to the insult, shifting effortlessly between dodging and delivering and then back again.

By the fifth round, after a sequence in which Farmer landed several shots, Redkach moved himself into the red corner, stayed there and waved Farmer forward — because at least that way he’d have his opponent momentarily stationary in front of him. Farmer refused to take the bait.

In the sixth, Redkach tried to make Farmer stay still by holding onto his right arm. Farmer merely twisted his body and threw left uppercuts around himself and to Redkach’s face. As the round came to an end, Farmer’s body work was taking a visible toll on Redkach.

Some of those body shots veered low. Redkach complained of that in the seventh, leading to referee Arthur Mercante breaking the action. Mercante didn’t take a point then, but he did after a shot in the eighth that was ruled as being below the border. But Redkach was already well behind on the scorecards, and he didn’t help his cause when he intentionally butted Farmer in the clinch early in the ninth, leading to a deduction of his own.

Farmer has four losses on his record, but he hasn’t lost in nearly four years. Those defeats all came within his first 12 pro fights, the last one coming via technical knockout against Jose Pedraza in 2012. Pedraza has since gone on to win a world title. Farmer, a 26-year-old from Philadelphia, has now won 15 in a row and improved to 22-4-1 with 5 KOs.

Redkach, a 30-year-old originally from the Ukraine and now fighting out of Los Angeles, fell to 19-2-1 and 15 KOs. The other defeat came via stoppage to Dejan Zlaticanin in 2015. Zlaticanin went on to win a world title.