Raymond Muratalla extended his unbeaten record to 21-0 with a unanimous-decision victory over former world champion Tevin Farmer – before calling out Denys Berinchyk and Shakur Stevenson.
Muratalla triumphed 97-92, 96-93 and 95-94 on the scorecards in Saturday night’s lightweight contest against Farmer, who was the IBF super featherweight title holder from 2018 to 2020.
The Californian is now hoping to face WBO lightweight champion Denys Berinchyk or WBC lightweight kingpin Shakur Stevenson.
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Last week, Shakur Stevenson beat Artem Harutyunyan by unanimous decision to defend his WBC lightweight world title
The 27-year-old said: “I want the champions next. Berinchyk called my name. I’m calling out his name right now. If I can’t get Berinchyk, then I want Shakur.”
Muratalla vs Farmer had become the main event in Las Vegas after WBO and IBF middleweight champion Janibek Alimkhanuly was forced to withdraw from his defence against Andrei Mikhailovich due to dehydration.
Farmer, 33, arguably outboxed Muratalla in the first half of the fight, showing his speed and counterpunching ability with his southpaw style, but faded as the bout progressed with Muratalla’s extra power telling.
Farmer, whose defeat was the sixth of a 41-fight career, was deducted a point for holding in the eighth round, before Muratalla landed several body shots and a powerful right hand en route to victory.
The winner said: “He was moving around. He was holding. So I had to keep putting on the pressure. And we came out with the victory.
“I was just consistent with the pressure. I just kept putting it on. My team told me to keep putting it on. I was breaking him down round by round.”
A frustrated Farmer said: “That point deduction was crazy. I feel like we were both holding.
“The times I tried to get out, he had my arm, so it looked like I was holding. But it’s the ref. He makes the calls. You have to take it on the chin.”
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