Robert Easter Jr. vs. Rances Barthelemy Finalized For April 27
Showtime announced a tripleheader of fights taking place next month.
In the main event of a boxing card from The Chelsea Inside The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, former world champions Robert Easter Jr. and Rances Barthelemy will fight for the WBA “Regular” lightweight title.
The winner becomes the WBA’s secondary world titleholder at 135 pounds. The governing body’s top champion at that weight class is unified titleholder Vasiliy Lomachenko, who is defending his WBA and WBO belts against mandatory challenger Anthony Crolla. That fight is taking place on April 12 in Los Angeles.
Easter has not fought since losing his IBF lightweight title in a unification bout against WBC champion Mikey Garcia last July. That fight ended Easter’s reign as champion, which started in 2016 and ended with three successful title reigns.
Barthelemy is a two-division world champion, winning the IBF super featherweight and lightweight titles throughout his career. Barthelemy unsuccessfully challenged for the then-vacant WBA junior welterweight title in March 2018 when he lost a 12-round decision to Kiryl Relikh.
The co-main event is a title eliminator for the WBC junior welterweight title between Viktor Postol and Mohamed Mimoune. The winner moves one step closer towards challenging for the WBC title, currently being held by Jose Ramirez.
Postol has previously held the WBC title from 2015 to 2016, but in his first title defense, he was soundly beaten by Terence Crawford in a title unification. Since then, Postol has won two of his last three fights with his most recent bout being a 10-round decision win against Siar Ozgul last November.
Mimoune, a 31-year-old from France, has held the IBO 140-pound title since January 2018 and was once the EBU European welterweight champion. Mimoune is victorious in his last 10 fights.
The opening fight of the Showtime telecast is a 10-round heavyweight bout between undefeated prospect Efe Ajagba and once-beaten German fighter Michael Wallisch.
