This weekend, two undefeated lightweight world champions collide in the City of Angels as WBC champion Mikey Garcia battles IBF counterpart Robert Easter Jr in an attempt to unify one of boxing’s historic glamour divisions.
Oxnard-born Garcia – trained by older brother Robert, a respected trainer and former super-featherweight titlist in his own right – recently captured the IBF light-welterweight title in February against then-undefeated Russian champion Sergey Lipinets, before vacating the belt to continue his career at lightweight.
Despite widespread suggestions that Garcia may have been punching above his weight – which were vindicated somewhat by the surprisingly competitive in-ring proceedings – Garcia floored Lipinets with a sharp counter left hook in the seventh round en route to a close but clear unanimous decision victory.
Garcia remains undeterred by such observations, however, and has earmarked welterweight champions Errol Spence and Keith Thurman as potential future opponents in an effort to replicate the legendary exploits of Manny Pacquiao, who Garcia has cited as one of his inspirations.
In January of last year, on the undercard of Carl Frampton’s rematch with Leo Santa Cruz in Las Vegas, Garcia obliterated Montenegrin Dejan Zlaticanin in three rounds with a sledgehammer right hand, claiming the WBC lightweight title in the process. After a prolonged ring absence of over two years from 2014 to 2016 following a promotional quarrel with Bob Arum, Garcia is seemingly determined to make up for lost time by making history in the ring.
He has the chance to do so once again on Saturday night, and if successful, may be in prime position to challenge southpaw phenomenon Vasyl Lomachenko for the undisputed lightweight championship in a super fight sometime next year; provided the latter makes a relatively quick recovery from the shoulder injury he sustained in his win over Jorge Linares, and subsequently unifies against promotional stablemate Reymundo Beltran.
Meanwhile, the Californian native must attend to more immediate matters against the similarly undefeated Robert Easter Jr: an aggressive, athletic and relentless opponent who will enjoy a substantial height and reach advantage over Garcia on the night.
Although freakishly tall for the weight, Cincinnati’s ‘Bunny’ is partial to exchanging at close quarters and crudely overwhelming his opponents with sheer volume, in a manner that more closely resembles Antonio Margarito than Thomas Hearns.
Easter, it can be argued, was incredibly fortunate to get the decision against both Denis Shafikov and Dominican southpaw Javier Fortuna in January, and it is reasonable, therefore, for some to expect a fighter of Mikey Garcia’s supposed calibre to be able to dictate the range and outclass Easter over twelve rounds.
Ultimately, however, there can be no room for complacency, as Easter possesses respectable punching power with 14 knockouts in 21 wins coupled with superior physical dimensions; attributes that may be enough for him to spring the upset and silence the Californian crowd.
Article by: Navi Singh
Follow Navi on Twitter at: @hombre__obscuro