WBC lightweight champion Mikey Garcia (38-0, 30 KOs) and IBF champion Robert Easter Jr. (21-0, 14 KOs) made weight on Friday for their unification fight on Saturday night at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Garcia weighed in at 135 pounds. Easter Jr. weighed in a half pound less at 134 ½ lbs. During the face off, the 5’11” Easter Jr. towered over the 5’6” Mikey.
The height difference between the two was quite significant when the two stood during the face off. Garcia, 30, appeared to avoid eye contact when they were facing off. Normally, Garcia looks confident during his face offs, but not in this case. He looked anything but confident.
“All the work is done; the talking is done. Now it’s time to settle this thing in the ring,” Mikey said.
It’s important that Mikey get the job done against Easter Jr., because this is a fight that he’s supposed to win. Mikey has disrespected Easter Jr. in a way by frequently telling the media in the last two weeks that he plans on facing IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. in the near future. By talking about wanting to fight Spence, Mikey is sending a not so subtle that he believes he’ll beat Easter Jr. on Saturday night. This is obviously a mistake on Mikey’s part, as he didn’t look invincible in his last fight against Sergey Lipinets last March. Mikey won the fight, but he looked vulnerable in that fight. He was the better fighter than Lipinets, but not good enough
“I told Mikey there ain’t no more talking. I’m coming in shape. It’s going to be an exciting fight for all the fans that are here from my side and from his side. We’re just ready to fight and put on a great performance for LA,” Easter Jr. said.
It’s good that the two fighters won’t be talking anymore because the fans want to see fighting, not talking. The 27-year-old Easter Jr. didn’t look so good in his last fight against former super featherweight champion Javier Fortuna in winning a 12 round split decision on January 20. The short 5’6” southpaw Fortuna was able to land his power shots all night long. Easter Jr. did a terrible job of keeping Fortuna from being able to get in range to land his shots.
Luis Ortiz vs. Razvan Cojanu official weights
In co-feature weights, former heavyweight title challenger Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz weighed in at 241 pounds for his 10 round fight against Razvan Cojanu. For his part, Cojanu (16-3, 9 KOs) weighed in 18 lbs. heavier at 269 lbs. Cojanu is five pounds lighter than he 274 lbs. he weighed for his last fight against former World Boxing Organization heavyweight champion Joseph Parker on May 6 in New Zealand. The 31-year-old Cojanu lost the fight by a one-sided 10 round unanimous decision.
This is Ortiz’s first fight since he was stopped in the 10th round by WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder on March 3 in Brooklyn, New York.
“I’m going to come out punching,” Ortiz said. “Every fight is an important fight and tomorrow night I will show what I can do. I’m going to show why I’m known as the most avoided fighter.”
Ortiz needs to make a statement in beating Cojanu. It’s not going to mean much for the 39-year-old Ortiz to win by a lopsided 10 round decision, because Cojanu is coming off of a one-sided 12 round decision loss to Joseph Parker last May. Moreover, Cojanu was knocked out in the 2nd round by Donovan Dennis on April 10, 2015. Donovan was knocked out in the 7th round by Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller in January 2016, and he hasn’t fought since.
The southpaw Ortiz needs to show that he’s capable of knocking out the limited 6’7 ½” Cojanu as well, and the best way for him to do that is to go after him immediately to take him out. It won’t be good for Ortiz to take his time with Cojanu and let him hang around, because he likes to clown and make his opponents look bad. Ortiz can’t look bad because he’s trying to make a case for him to get a rematch with Wilder. That means he needs to stop Cojanu in impressive fashion. Cojanu gave Parker a lot of problems in losing by a 117-110, 117-110 and 119-109 scores.
Mario Barrios vs. Jose Roman official weights
In other weights for the card, light welterweight prospect Mario Barrios (21-0, 13 KOs) weighed in at 141 ½ pounds for his 10 round fight against Jose Roman (24-2-1, 16 KOs). Roman weighed in at 142 lbs.