Boxing’s unification game has been on point so far in 2018. Saturday’s PBC on Showtime show will further strengthen that reality as well when Mikey Garcia and Robert Easter Jr bring two lightweight titles together in the ring.
It is kind of amazing to me that Miguel “Mikey” Garcia (38-0, 30 KOs) still doesn’t really get his due from the boxing fanbase. There is a strong argument that he could be ranked as high as #3 in the pound for pound rankings even. He can’t be put ahead of Vasyl Lomachenko or Terence Crawford, nor am I saying he is definitively above the likes of Canelo, GGG, Sor Rungvisai, or Oleksandr Usyk, but the argument is there to be made. You wouldn’t really know it though from the hype a Mikey Garcia fight generates though. I’m not saying he’s ignored because he isn’t, but a fight with Garcia unifying belts against a young, unbeaten fellow titleholder should turn more heads than this is seeming to turn.
Garcia was a known prospect coming up out of the Top Rank stable for a while, but he got his first major exposure as the HBO co-feature to a then rising Yuriorkis Gamboa card against Matt Remillard. Another trio of HBO appearances followed before he got his first world title crack against the always tough Orlando Salido. Young Mikey really established himself as a potential star that night too. He put Salido down three times before the non-contest was stopped due to Garcia’s nose being badly injured by an “accidental” Salido patented headbutt, giving the Mexican-American the belt on the cards.
Mikey tried to defend the belt, but he failed to make weight because he was just too big for featherweight. He knocked out Puerto Rican star JuanMa Lopez anyway though before moving up officially. Garcia immediately won a junior lightweight belt in his first fight at 130 pounds. Again, it was over a really good fighter in Rocky Martinez, and again it was by knockout. Garcia defended the belt one more time. Then he vanished.
It was a contract dispute that derailed his career for a while. To simplify, Garcia and his team felt Top Rank wasn’t fulfilling the terms of the contract and that it was therefore void. Top Rank, of course, disagreed. This kept Mikey Garcia out of the ring for two and a half of his prime years while the two sides fought it out legally. Boxing didn’t forget him, but it stripped him of his title and moved on unsure if the sport would ever seen the undefeated former champion again.
The issue was finally settled by the summer of 2016, however, and Garcia returned. He took a fall tune up and then jumped into a lightweight title fight against new titlist Dejan Zlaticanin of Montenegro in January of 2017. I thought Zlaticanin had the look of a potentially good fighter on the world scene, but it didn’t matter. Garcia put him out with a knockout of the year candidate in only three rounds.
This led to the biggest fight of Mikey Garcia’s career in July of last year at junior welterweight against the popular and controversial Adrien Broner. Given that Garcia had only just become a lightweight and Broner has real experience up at welterweight, I had some logical sized based concerns for their junior welterweight showdown. It didn’t matter though. The then three division titleholder comfortably controlled and battered Adrien Broner on his way to a wide, one sided decision win. It was a masterclass performance and the Mexican-American pound for pound elite followed it up with another one in his most recent fight, out pointing Sergey Lipinets to pick up a title at junior welterweight.
The now four division titleholder is talking of moving all the way up to welterweight on a seeming suicide mission against Errol Spence Jr, but for now he is dropping back down to defend his WBC title against IBF belt holder Robert Easter Jr. The Toledo star is an interesting study himself too, but not necessarily for positive reasons. From 2015 to his title fight with Richard Commey near the end of 2016, Easter was considered one of the best prospects in boxing. Commey, the other half of the vacant title fight, was only known to the most hardcore fans. The two put on an excellent fight in which Robert got the decision on, but it could have gone either way. Easter touched the canvas in the eighth.
Next came a dominant first victory lap defense at home against overmatched Luis Cruz. The IBF titleholder put Cruz down in each of the last three rounds, but the matchup was uninspiring and Easter didn’t make a big statement with it. Toledo was good to its favorite son his next time out against Russian contender Denis Shafikov. The challenger came to town and put on a really solid performance in pushing Easter to the brink. Like the Commey fight, I would have had no problem with either guy getting the decision. Sadly and comically, the scorecards came back absurdly wide in the hometown hero’s favor as they have so many times in the history of the sport.
We came close to watching the bottom fall out in January against Javier Fortuna. The Dominican is a pretty dynamic athlete, but Fortuna was knocked out by a more limited and smaller Jason Sosa eighteen months prior to his title opportunity against Easter Jr. It wasn’t necessarily viewed as a tough defense, but it was. Fortuna landed many, many quality blows and I didn’t see Easter answering as well as he was taking in return. It wasn’t a rout, but I thought Javier Fortuna had upset the Ohio native. Showtime’s card agreed too. The decision came back for Robert Easter Jr anyway, however.
Shafikov, Commey, and Fortuna are good fighters, real good fighters even, but they have also highlighted that Robert Easter Jr is not necessarily going to be the pound for pound contender that was promised. In reality he could have gone 0-3 in those decisions without anyone really batting an eye at the judging. Really, it is the judges of his fights that have got him into this big opportunity in a way. As an aside, I also don’t like his close relationship with Adrien Broner, an undisciplined loose cannon of a man no aspiring pound for pound elite should model his life after.
Easter Jr does have some real advantages in this matchup physically in theory. He is the much bigger man and ideally would keep Garcia on the outside where only he can do damage. The problem is that Robert Easter Jr has never actually shown the ability to use these physically gifts ideally with any real consistency. The odds of him suddenly pulling it off against the best technician he has ever face are slim to none. I don’t actually see this as likely to be all that competitive of a fight, but I will always show up on the couch to watch Mikey Garcia fight regardless.
Speaking of noncompetitive, what a pile of junk this undercard is. I’m not going to dignify it with extended write ups. Luis Ortiz (28-1, 24 KOs) and Mario Barrios (21-0, 13 KOs) are going to pocket wins against overmatched opponents Razvan Cojanu (16-3, 9 KOs) and Jose Roman (24-2-1, 16 KOs). These fights belong on PBC on FS1, not Showtime. Ortiz is coming off the devastating knockout loss to Wilder. I fully view him as entitled to a gimme like this after that, but why is this a Showtime co-main event? Barrios is a heavily protected prospect getting yet another easy showcase here. His opponent in Roman lost a wide decision to an 18-8 journeyman last time out. Why is this on Showtime too? This undercard is absolute trash by the normal standards of PBC and Showtime’s arrangement. There is no reason to sugar coat it.
The show begins at 10 PM Eastern on Showtime. The premium network will also be streaming two addition fights on its social media platforms beforehand, featuring Fabian Maidana, brother to Marcos, and exciting US Olympic prospect Karlos Balderas in separate bouts. I haven’t see a confirmed time on this one, but I’d guess at or a little after eight o’clock based on the general pace of these things.
