Dejon Farrell Francis Turning Things Around
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 02 Dec 2025
It took Dejon Farrell Francis 10 years to find the right gym. This 29 year old is better known as "FairPlay" from his old street beefs fights on YouTube where he was known to beat his opponents while wearing a tuxedo. He amassed a 38-2 record and a huge following from these unsanctioned Donnybrooks. He did have some success in amateur MMA picking up five titles in the unpaid ranks. But when he turned pro in boxing in 2023 he didn’t have a gym or coach and started off with a 1-3 record.
Then earlier this year he walked into Gladiator Gym in Forked River and hit it off with Coach Shawn Darling (who was recently inducted into the NJ Boxing Hall of Fame).
Darling took him on as a challenge to see if they could turn him around. After four months of training they went into hostile territory defeating Bethlehem’s hometown hero, Mike Liberto who was a 2-0 cruiserweight at the time with a second round TKO on September 5, 2025. Then only 8 weeks later he moved up to heavyweight to challenge 288 lb Dominique Mayfield 4-1-1 in his hometown of Philly on November 1st. . The fight was stopped within seconds of the first round after an onslaught of punches from "FairPlay: caused Mayfield’s shoulder to become dislodged leading to a 1st round TKO! Since that fight was so quick Farrell-Francis took on cruiserweight Avante Barr only 3 weeks later on November 22nd in Atlantic City. That fight took "FairPlay" four rounds and two knockdowns before it was waved off giving him three TKOs in three months!
Farrell-Francis is set to kick off the new year on January 13th against Tunde Fatiregun at cruiserweight. Darling is teaching him the ropes and keeping him busy. Now at 4-3 and after a couple more wins would like to fight for a regional belt.
Having excellent sparring partners at Gladiator: Chris "Sandman: Thomas (15-3), Cali "Ninja" Box (5-0) and Tyler Ghost Vanorden (4-0) is a huge plus.
When Farrell-Francis isn’t knocking people out he’s answering to the name Sarge in the US Army National Guard.
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