The International Boxing Federation has a new lightweight world champion as Mikey Garcia dethroned reigning champion Robert Easter Jr. on July 28, 2018 with a dominant unanimous decision victory at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.
Garcia, (39-0, 30KO) was able to find his rhythm early in the bout, which led to a third round knockdown after a flurry of landed punches. Judges’ scorecards were all in favor of Garcia at 118-109, 117-110 and 116-11 for the UD win. There was an announced crowd of 12,560.
Throughout the course of the fight the success continued for Garcia, and heading into the championship rounds he consistently found a home for his right hand against the defending champion. Easter had held the 135 pound title since September 2016 and had made three straight successful defenses prior to the bout against Garcia.
“It’s a great accomplishment. Now we’re back. I told you guys I was coming for bigger things and now we’re one step closer to achieving that,” said Garcia, who out-landed Easter 176 to 129 according to CompuBox statistics.
The win marks the second time Garcia has held an IBF title. In March of 2018 Garcia registered a decision win over defending champion Sergey Lipinets for the super lightweight title.