Mikey Garcia: After Robert Easter Jr. Knockdown, “I Felt That I Was Starting To Take Control”

Mikey Garcia‘s lightweight unification fight against Robert Easter Jr. saw Garcia dominate far more than some had predicted.

Thanks to a knockdown Garcia had scored late in the third round of their WBC/IBF lightweight unification at the Staples Center, the undefeated four-division champion gave a boxing clinic against the much taller Easter.

In the post-fight press conference, Garcia spoke to Fightful on his fight against Easter and said he started to feel more comfortable fighting Easter after scoring the knockdown. Garcia did say that the knockdown itself wasn’t the sole cause of him getting better as the fight progressed and that he wanted to take the first couple of rounds to get a feel for Easter’s abilities. Once the knockdown came, Garcia was already ready to go on the attack.

“I like to be patient early on in my fights anyway. The first couple of rounds, I’m feeling my opponent, finding my range, feeling his speed and power. So it was just a matter of time before I started to get on the attack and get my rhythm going. It just so happens that I knocked him down in that third round, but I started to get that rhythm going. After I noticed that I could hurt him, I felt that I was starting to take control and that was it [for Easter]. There was no turning back,” Garcia said.

Garcia would end up winning the fight with relative ease, winning almost every round since the third. Garcia got the nod from all three judges at ringside with scorecards of 116-111, 117-110 and 118-109. Fightful, who was at ringside covering the fight, had scored the bout 119-108.

The press conference can be seen in the video at this link. Skip to 24:20 in the video to watch Garcia speak to Fightful.