It took Dejon Farrell-Francis ten 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 would fight while wearing a tuxedo. He amassed an unofficial 38-2 record and a huge following from these unsanctioned donnybrooks. He had some success in amateur mixed  martial arts. 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, Pennsylvania's Mike Liberto who was a 2-0 cruiserweight at the time. Liberto fell via second-round TKO on September 5th. Only eight weeks later, Farrell-Francis he moved up to heavyweight to challenge 288-pound Dominique Mayfield in Philadelphia 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 first-round stoppage. Since that fight was so quick, Farrell-Francis took on cruiserweight Avante Barr only three 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 13, 2026 against Tunde Fatiregun (3-2) at cruiserweight. Darling is teaching him the ropes and keeping him busy. Now 4-3, Farrell-Francis wants a couple of more wins and then 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.