By Allan Fox: Undefeated IBF World lightweight champion Robert Easter Jr. (20-0, 14 KOs) won an easy 12 round unanimous decision over #1 IBF challenger Denis Shafikov (38-3-1, 20 KOs) on Friday night on Premier Boxing Champions on Bounce TV from the Huntington Center in Toledo, Ohio. The much taller 5’11” Easter Jr. bounced out a wide decision over the 5’5” Shafikov by the scores 120-108, 120-108, and 116-112.
Boxing News 24 scored the fight 120-108 for the 26-year-old Easter. It was hard to make a case for Shafikov winning any rounds. He was getting hit so often when he was coming forward trying to land.
Even when Shafikov did eventually land good shots, he was eating 6 hard punches on the way in. Easter was hitting Shafikov with some big punches, but he took them each time without any problems. But it was impossible to say that Shafikov deserved to be given any of the rounds.
This was a good performance from Easter, who successfully defended his IBF title for the second time.
Shafikov put in a game effort of pressuring Easter Jr. He put pressure on Easter Jr. in every round of the fight, but he didn’t have the height or the arm length needed for him to land his shots.
Easter Jr. would lean away from Shafikov’s shots and make him miss all night long. Even when Shafikov was able to back Easter Jr. up against the ropes. he was still unable to land his shots with any regularity.
Shafikov had his best moments in the fight in the first 5 rounds. He was able to land some power shots eery now and then to the head and body of Easter Jr. The problem is that Easter Jr. was making Shafikov pay by nailing him with jabs, left hooks and right hands as he would come forward. Easter Jr. couldn’t miss with his shots. Shafikov had no other choice but to come forward because he couldn’t stay on the outside and brawl with Easter Jr. due to his short reach. His arms weren’t long enough.
Shafikov never let up with his attacking style of fighting. He forced Easter Jr. to defend and throw punches nonstop. Easter started to look fatigued by the midpoint of the fight, as he obviously wasn’t used to the kind of pressure that Shafikov was putting on him in the fight.
The 5’5” Shafikov was unable to land enough of his big shots for him to take the fight. It’s hard to see what else he could have gone to get the victory. Shafikov was giving away so much in the way of height.
The only way that Shafikov could have won the fight is if he landed a perfect shot that might have hurt Easter Jr. Unfortunately for Shafikov, he lacked the punching power to get Easter Jr. any problem. That’s what it came down to. He was lacking the big time power he needed for him to make up for his lack of height and reach.
You’ve got to give Easter Jr. a lot of credit. He showed great boxing skills in beating Shafikov in a more decisive manner than anyone else had in his career. Before tonight, Shafikov’s past defeats came at the hands of Miguel Vazquez and Rances Barthelemy. Those weren’t one-sided defeats for Shafikov. He won some rounds in both of those fights and made it hard for them. Easter Jr. is looking hard to beat right now.
It’s going to take someone really special o beat him because of his size. Even Mikey Garcia would ave problems with the size of Easter Jr. because he’s hard to hit due to his height and reach.
Easter Jr. needs to look to fight WBC lightweight champion Mikey Garcia now or WBO champion Terry Flanagan. There’s nobody else for Easter Jr. to fight. If Easter Jr. can beat one of both of those fighters, then he can move up in weight to the light welterweight division and look to fight whoever is the top guy in that division. Terence Crawford is expected to move up in weight shortly after he fights Julius Indongo in a unification fight on August. Easter Jr. can move in and take the titles vacated by Crawford. It’s too bad Crawford will be soon moving up in weight to the 147 lb. division. It would be interesting to see Easter Jr. and Crawford go at it.
In other results on the card, former junior middleweight title challenger Julian “J Rock” Williams (23-1-1, 15 KOs) beat the game but limited Joshua Conley (14-2-1, 9 KOs) by a 7th round knockout. The fight was really one-sided with Conley taking a lot of stiff shots from the hard hitting Williams. Conley’s trainer opted to have the fight halted in the 7th by tossing in the towel to have the fight stopped.
It was a good win for J-Rock, as he was coming back from a 5th round knockout defeat at the hands of former IBF junior middleweight champion Jermall Charlo in his last fight.
Other boxing action on the card:
Junior middleweight Jamontay Clark (12-0, 7 KOs) beat Ivan Golub (13-1, 11 KOs) by an 8 round unanimous decision. The judges scored the fight 79-73, 77-75, and 77-75. It was a lose fight that could have gone either way. Judges saw something in Clark’s performance that made them think he deserved the victory. But like I said, it could have easily have gone to Golub.
Super middleweight Damar Singleton (9-1, 5 KO’s) stopped Cory Dulaney (5-5-1,4 KO’s) in the 2nd round.
Junior middleweight Enver Halili (10-0 3 KOs) dominated Wesley Tucker (14-1 8 KOs) in beating him by a one-sided eight round decision. The judges scored the fight 78-74, 79-73, and 79-73).