What did I tell yall?
I said for MONTHS Mikey Garcia was avoiding Robert Easter Jr....yall told me I was tripping
Was I?
Mikey Garcia: Money Must be Right to Make Robert Easter Fight
By Keith Idec
A lightweight title unification fight against Robert Easter was among the options Mikey Garcia seriously considered before finalizing a shot at IBF junior welterweight champion Sergey Lipinets earlier this month.
Ultimately, though, neither Garcia nor Easter would’ve been paid enough to satisfy either fighter for that bout between undefeated lightweight champions. Instead, Easter (20-0, 14 KOs) will defend his IBF 135-pound championship against Javier Fortuna (33-1-1, 23 KOs) on January 20, three weeks before Garcia (37-0, 30 KOs) challenges Lipinets (13-0, 10 KOs) on February 10 in San Antonio.
“He’s willing to fight me and I’m willing to fight him,” Garcia told BoxingScene.com.
“But when the purse was not really exciting, not what we both want, it’s hard to get those fights done. And people forget, everybody wants to get paid, everyone wants to get money. No one likes to take pay cuts.
“Whatever job you’re doing, if the boss comes and tells you, ‘I can only pay you this much because I don’t have it in the budget,’ I’m sure you’re gonna complain about why they’re cutting your money. Nobody likes to take a pay cut. So we also wanna make sure that we’re being taken care of financially, as well as in boxing.”
If Garcia returns to lightweight after facing Lipinets in a second straight fight at 140 pounds, Easter figures to be the second 135-pound champion on his list of options. The Oxnard, California, native also told BoxingScene.com that he plans to sit down again with Oscar De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez to negotiate a long-discussed lightweight title unification fight against WBA champion Jorge Linares (43-3, 27 KOs).
Venezuela’s Linares also would need to defeat the Philippines’ Mercito Gesta (31-1-2, 27 KOs) on January 27 in Inglewood, California, to remain a viable alternative for Garcia. If the Linares fight fails to materialize yet again, Garcia would welcome a battle with Easter, of Toledo, Ohio.
“I’m not saying he’s not worthy, but it just didn’t make [financial] sense for this fight in January,” Garcia said. “Maybe on another occasion we could actually get that fight [made], but it didn’t make sense for this fight.
“When it came down to the purses, again, if the guy can’t get paid what he’s asking for or generate the money that we need in sales to pay him what he’s asking for, or to get paid what we need to get paid, also, sometimes the budget ain’t gonna work.”
Garcia realizes he would encounter plenty of obstacles if he steps in the ring against Easter.
“Lipinets presents a size advantage as far as weight, but Easter presents height and reach advantages,” said Garcia, who’s five inches shorter than the 5-feet-11 Easter.
“That could make for a very difficult fight. He could use his height and reach advantage over me and make things more complicated. So those are the challenges.”
Showtime will televise the Easter-Fortuna fight as part of a doubleheader January 20 from Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. In the main event that night, Errol Spence Jr. (22-0, 19 KOs), of DeSoto, Texas, will make the first defense of his IBF welterweight title against former two-division champion Lamont Peterson (35-3-1, 17 KOs), of Washington, D.C.
The Lipinets-Garcia fight also will be broadcast by Showtime on February 10 from the Alamodome.
Mikey Garcia: Money Must be Right to Make Robert Easter Fight
Speak for yourself Mikey.....Easter aint EVER said the purse has to be right and has said multiple times on twitter that yall never negotiated and the fight has never been brought to him or brought up to him per Easter's own words
@mr. smoke weed Yall can lose the #AboutBillions hotline if you just trying to play on our phone