Mike garcia vs robert easter

Garcia dropped him in the third round and soundly defeated Easter in a lightweight title unification fight that drew an announced crowd of 12, to Staples Center. Each of the three judges gave Garcia credit for beating Easter in their round bout. Larry Hazzard Jr. Edward Hernandez had Garcia ahead after 12 rounds, and Steve Weisfeld credited Garcia with a victory.

The year-old Garcia, of Oxnard, California, improved his record to 30 KOs thanks to this unanimous-decision win. He gave a great fight, but I was the better fighter.

› mikey-garcia-vs-robert-easter-compubox-inside-.

I was in control of the fight and I did what I had to do to win. He dropped Easter with a left hook late in the third round and made Easter respect his power over the remaining eight-plus rounds. I just had to wait [for] my time. He has some good hand speed, so I just had to be patient and careful.

All three judges scored the fight in favor of Garcia.

There were times in their fight when Easter seemed like he was merely trying to avoid getting knocked out. The consistent, technically sound Garcia won the IBF lightweight championship from Easter and made the first defense of the WBC lightweight title he won by knocking out Dejan Zlaticanin in the third round of their January fight in Las Vegas.

Garcia beat Lipinets by unanimous decision March 10 in San Antonio to become a world champion in a fourth weight class. Easter had defended the IBF lightweight title three times before Garcia took it from him. Both of those fights — a split-decision victory over Javier Fortuna and a unanimous-decision win against Denis Shafikov — both came against southpaws.