LOS ANGELES — Mikey Garcia had won world titles in four weight classes, risen near the top of boxing’s pound-for-pound list and put himself in position for any number of major fights. But one thing had eluded him — a unification fight.
Until Saturday, that is, when he put on a dominating performance to drop Robert Easter Jr. and easily outpoint him to unify two 135-pound world titles before an adoring crowd of 12,560 on Saturday night at the Staples Center.
Garcia won going away on the scorecards, 118-109, 117-110 and 116-111 in a fight which he knocked Easter down in the third round. ESPN also scored the fight for Garcia, 118-109, in the 10th lightweight title unification fight in history and first since Juan Manuel Marquez defeated Juan Diaz in the 2009 fight of the year.
Garcia has won world titles at featherweight, junior lightweight, lightweight in February outpointed Sergey Lipinets for a junior welterweight belt to join only legends Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez in winning world titles at 126, 130, 135 and 140 pounds.
But Garcia quickly vacated the 140-pound belt it in order to return to lightweight for the unification opportunity against Easter, who was making his fourth title defense. Garcia was making the first defense of the title he won 18 months ago by starching Dejan Zlaticanin with a highlight-reel knockout in the third round in January 2017.
Some questioned whether he would be able to comfortably make the weight after having had two fights in a row in the junior welterweight division but he appeared strong and fast against Easter.
Easter, in his first fight with new head trainer Kevin Cunningham, showed exactly what his game plan would be from the opening bell, which was to use his eight-inch reach advantage to keep Garcia at the end of his jab and also go to the body, which he did effectively early on.
Garcia (39-0, 30 KOs), 30, of Moreno Valley, California, picked up the pace in the second round as he tried to crowd the taller Easter and work him on the inside but Easter (21-1, 14 KOs), 27, of Toledo, Ohio, was able to mostly keep him at bay with his jab.
But he could not keep that going for the duration of the fight. Garcia was having a very good third round when he it got even better when he connected with a three-punch combination — jab, right hand, hard left hook — that dropped Easter with a few seconds left. He beat the count but took a few more shots as the round ended.
Garcia continued to assert himself in the fourth round, forcing Easter back and working him over with an assortment of combinations. As the fight wore on the steam on Easter’s jab waned and he became a more stationary target for Garcia to work on.
Garcia moved forward nonstop and bounced jabs and right hands off Easter, who went into full retreat mode in the eighth round. The ninth round brought the crowd to its feet as they exchanged hard punches during an extended and fierce exchange that saw Garcia landed some punishing left hooks to Easter’s body while Easter forced his left hand down the middle as the crowd chanted “Mikey! Mikey! Mikey!”
Garcia pounded Easter in the 10th round. He rocked his head back with flush jabs and forced him to ropes before landing combinations upstairs against an Easter, who could barely get off any punches. It was more of the same in the 11th round as Easter languished on the ropes for long stretches and took punishment.
After the 11th round, Robert Garcia, Mikey’s trainer and brother, told him not to do anything stupid in the final round and while he didn’t do anything stupid he did take it to Easter and land more clean punches while Easter showed no urgency.