Showtime’s co-main event is over and Robert Easter Jr has had his hand raised as expected. The fight didn’t go according to script though. Javier Fortuna might have missed weight, but he announced himself as a lightweight with a strong performance in a close fight.
This first two rounds of the fight were very interesting. The opening frame was busy and exciting, but it was also a little sloppy. Neither guy landed a ton clean and Javier Fortuna (33-2-1, 23 KOs) was warned for holding behind the head and hitting twice. The pace held up in the second, but the round had two differences. For one, I thought Fortuna landed some nice work. Easter got some back too, but not as much. Unfortunately, the Dominican also lost a point for heading a hunched over Easter behind the head. It was the first time he committed that error and the Showtime team objected on those grounds. Given his laundry list of fouls in the first two rounds, I didn’t mind. Since I found the first round dead even and scored the second for a man who lost a point, I scored both of the first two rounds both even for maybe the first time ever in any fight.
The third stayed fun and Easter was doing well early, but I thought he was buzzed towards the end of the round. He definitely went into a retreat. Fortuna changed his look in the fourth by boxing and moving away, but he also jumped in to land his shots while Easter couldn’t really find him. After four rounds, I hadn’t scored one for Robert Easter Jr (21-0, 14 KOs). Two were even though, strangely.
The Cincinnati titleholder seemed to sense that maybe the fight wasn’t going his way as indicated by the sense of urgency he opened the fifth with. Easter pushed his way inside and began working the body fiercely in the opening minute. This was the first time I saw him giving better than he was getting, particularly with the left hooks to the body. Fortuna landed one really nice counter uppercut, but he didn’t do enough to win the round. The 26 year old IBF titleholder had another good first two minutes of round six too. Unfortunately for him, Fortuna stole the round with a huge counter left hand that appeared to hurt Easter Jr with thirty seconds or so left in the round.
The fight settled down in rounds seven and eight. Robert Easter Jr was trying to attack a lot more than the challenger was working, but he smothered his work much more often than not. Fortuna didn’t do a ton, but what he did throw landed more cleanly. I ended up splitting the rounds for the two fighters. The ninth and tenth were similar, though I thought they had more clear winners. Fortuna didn’t do much at all in the ninth and lost by default, but he landed the much cleaner work in the tenth. The Dominican landed a nice series of lefts to cap the round at its close in particular.
The first two minutes of round eleven were a phone booth sized whirlwind of violence on the inside. Robert Easter Jr made it an extreme inside fight and both men fought well there. The titleholder worked the body with notable success, but for my money Javier Fortuna’s superior head work carried the round. He turned his opponent into a bobblehead at times in there. Fortuna also clearly won the twelfth.
Before talking about scoring, it must be noted that Javier Fortuna missed weight. This was a surprise given that he was previously a junior lightweight and had never even weighed as high as the full lightweight limit. According to IBF rules, he was not eligible to win the belt and Robert Easter Jr would keep the title win or draw.
I scored the fight 116-113 for Javier Fortuna. I noted in my preview that Robert Easter Jr isn’t the super elite lightweight that was promised and I do believe that showed here. He has now struggled against Richard Commey, Denis Shafikov, and Javier Fortuna. These are good fighters, but they do not compare to the elites of the division like Jorge Linares and Mikey Garcia. Quite frankly, scorecards in favor of Commey and Shafikov instead of Easter would have been fair. He very reasonably could be 0-3 in these three fights.
Official scores came back split. Robert Easter Jr won with cards scoring 115-112 and 114-113 while the dissenting score went 114-113 the other way. I thought Fortuna won, but it was a close fight. Mathematically, the second round point deduction gave Easter the win. Steve Farhood scored it 115-112 for Fortuna.
Post-fight the crowd booed the decision while Robert Easter Jr claimed it was because he didn’t get the knockout. He also called out Jorge Linares and Mikey Garcia. Fortuna complained about the decision, of course. I wouldn’t mind a rematch here, but I don’t expect PBC to do that.
