LOS ANGELES ? Mikey Garcia (39-0, 30 KOs) had little trouble dealing with the height and reach of Robert Easter (21-1, 14 KOs) and cruised to a 12-round unanimous decision, unifying his WBC lightweight title with Easter’s IBF title. The 30-year-old once again proved his pound for pound status is well deserved with a dominant performance in front of 12,560 pro-Garcia fans at the Staples Center. Afterward, Garcia threw down the gauntlet and challenged welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. to a fight later this year.
Garcia’s performance was one of dominance as he used his precision power punching and ring generalship to control the fight. It was expected that Easter would seek to put Garcia on the end of his jab. However, Garcia methodically walked Easter down and repeatedly pinned him on the ropes. Without an exit strategy, Easter was resigned to eat power shots from his Mexican-American opponent. What started as a competitve battle changed drastically when Garcia unloaded a thudding left hook that sent Easter careening to the canvas. Easter was hurt badly and spent the middle rounds trying to fight off Garcia rather than fight him.
Easter would catch a second wind in the later rounds, including a thrilling 9th round where both fighters exchanged heavy leather. It looked as if Easter briefly stunned Garcia with a left hand but Garcia roared right back with yet another devastating salvo of power shots that put Easter on his bicycle.
After 12 rounds, judges saw the fight in Garcia’s favor with scores of 116-111, 117-110 & 118-109.
