By Keith Idec
Robert Easter Jr. wants a lightweight title unification fight the second time he gets in the ring this year.
That doesn’t just mean Easter wants Mikey Garcia. Like Garcia, Easter also would welcome a fight against Jorge Linares.
Garcia, the WBC lightweight champ, and Linares, who owns the WBA title, are supposed to resume negotiations for a summer showdown if they win their upcoming bouts. If those talks don’t lead to them finally fighting, Easter is more than ready to step in.
“I’ve been calling these guys out for a while and it’s kind of up to them,” Easter said during a recent conference call. “I’ve been sitting back, taking these mandatory fights and fights that really don’t make sense like unifying the titles would. But hopefully we can, all the champions. meet up and fight. So when I win this fight, hopefully.”
By “this fight,” Easter referred to the third defense of his IBF lightweight championship, scheduled for January 20 in Brooklyn. Easter (20-0, 14 KOs), of Toledo, Ohio, is set to meet the Dominican Republic’s Javier Fortuna (33-1-1, 23 KOs) in a 12-rounder Showtime will broadcast before its main event from Barclays Center, IBF welterweight champ Errol Spence Jr. (22-0, 19 KOs) against Lamont Peterson (35-3-1, 17 KOs).
A week later, Venezuela’s Linares (43-3, 27 KOs) is set to defend his title against the Philippines’ Mercito Gesta (31-1-2, 17 KOs). HBO will televise their fight January 27 from The Forum in Inglewood, California.
“He’s a crafty fighter, fast, holds a lot,” Easter said of Linares. “But he’s nothing special I haven’t seen before.”
Two weeks following Linares-Gesta, Garcia (37-0, 30 KOs) will try to become a four-division champion. The Oxnard, California, native will challenge IBF junior welterweight champ Sergey Lipinets (13-0, 10 KOs) on February 10 at the Alamodome in San Antonio (Showtime).
Once those two fights are over, Easter hopes Garcia or Linares will fight him.
“I wouldn’t say I’m the forgotten guy,” Easter said. “I’m just the guy they don’t wanna fight. Of course, when you hear these interviews, you hear these guys talking. They always bring up everybody else’s names, except for mine. And you cannot forget about me. I’m the tallest in the weight class, maybe the fastest and probably one of the strongest.
“So of course they’re not gonna mention my name, because they don’t wanna fight me. I’ve been calling these guys out. I know they see that, so how can they not acknowledge that? Shout out to Jorge and Mikey. They’re doing their thing. They’re winning these fights like champions are supposed to. But it’s time we unify these titles, like I’ve been trying to do.”
Meanwhile, all Easter feels he can do is continue winning and hope he gets the type of fights he wants.
“Just keep making these statements, you know, showing people that I can’t be beat,” Easter said. “Not only [Garcia], but for these other fighters. As you can see, none of the champions are heading my way, so obviously I’m doing something right.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.