Boxing will always be boxing. Tonight in Toledo, Ohio, IBF lightweight titlist Robert Easter Jr successfully defended his strap over Russian contender Denis Shafikov. I have no problem with that sentence. The fight was extremely close and could have gone to either man. In fact, I had it a draw. Boxing being boxing, however, two of the judges somehow managed to fill out two shut out scorecards for the hometown fighter.
The third card came back 116-112, which is eight rounds to four for Robert Easter Jr (20-0, 14 KOs). That card is completely within the realm of acceptability. Again, I had a draw, but ultimately so many of the rounds could have gone either way that there is a wide range of possible scores. 120-108 for either man is just not within that range.
Basically, Easter Jr was able to excel in this fight when he used his feet to maintain distance to box Denis Shafikov (38-3-1, 20 KOs) from the outside. Unfortunately for him, he was only able to really do that for three rounds or so total throughout the fight. The rest of the night was contested toe to toe phone booth style. The Toledo fighter was not outclassed inside by any means, but overall Shafikov was slightly getting the better of it most of the fight.
Thankfully, the fight was entertaining as that is the only silver lining here. Though Easter didn’t fight particularly smart, he and his Russian challenger both fought very hard in fan friendly styles. I wouldn’t mind a rematch, but Denis Shafikov stands little chance of ever getting one in this boxing climate.
Julian “J-Rock” Williams (23-1-1, 15 KOs) returned from his title shot loss to Jermall Charlo in a get well bout as the co-feature. Joshua Conley (14-2-1, 9 KOs) was never going to compete on this level. From a competitive standpoint, this bout was entirely pointless. It probably did serve to re-establish some of J-Rock’s confidence, however. He stopped Conley in the seventh.
Also featured on the broadcast was yet another poor set of cards. Ivan Golub (13-1, 11 KOs) was handed his first loss, but it wasn’t from his opponent Jamontay Clark (12-0, 7 KOs). Instead it was the judges who should have scored themselves victorious as they clearly were the ones to beat Golub. The powerful Ukrainian badly hurt Jamontay Clark in the fourth and otherwise mostly controlled the action, clearly winning the majority of rounds. Yet, they scored the contest for Cincinnati’s Clark. On this night the judging criteria largely seemed to rest on whether a fighter was local or not as its primary criteria. It was not a good look for Toledo’s second major card.
