Robert Easter Jr. outpoints Adrian Granados in phone booth fight
Robert Easter Jr. outgrinded Adrian Granados to win a 10-round unanimous decision on the Erickson Lubin-Nathaniel Gallimore card Saturday at the Santander Arena in Reading, Pennsylvania.
The scores were 97-93, 98-92 and 100-90, all in favor of Easter, who was making his junior welterweight debut.
Easter was coming off a desultory draw with Rances Bathelemy last spring. But there was no problem pleasing the fans on this night, thanks to Granados, a pressure fighter who hails from the school of “take two to land one.”
The fight was a tale of two halves. Easter (22-1-1, 14 knockouts) controlled the early rounds, fighting mostly on his back foot and catching Granados with counter straight rights and uppercuts as he came forward somewhat artlessly. By the seventh round, Granados (20-8-2, 14 KOs) began having success coaxing Easter to fight on the inside and landing overhand rights. Easter returned to his stool with his mouth bloodied.
Though Easter’s trainer, his father, implored him not to fight on the inside, Easter continued to exchange in the trenches, where he still landed the crisper shots. The phone booth fight clearly benefited Granados, the definition of a volume puncher, but his lack of power and inability to land clean, telling punches put him at a disadvantage.
Afterward, Granados, who was knocked out in his last fight against welterweight contender Danny Garcia, expressed his disappointment in the wide decision.
“Honestly, I’m speechless,” Granados said. “I feel like I won the fight. I don’t really got complaining to do. It looks like they already had a victor. 100-90? Come on, now. Come on, now.”
Also, undefeated Cuban heavyweight Frank Sanchez enjoyed a glorified heavy bag session. He wailed away on a dour Jack Mulowayi for 10 lackluster rounds en route to a shutout decision: All three judges scored it 100-90.
The talent gulf was obvious from the opening bell, with Sanchez (14-0, 11KOs) flashing a stiff jab and working Mulowayi’s body all fight long, pasting his waist with hard lefts and rights. There were multiple moments when Sanchez appeared to have Mulowayi (7-2-1, 3 KOs) hurt, but he declined to press the action. It was clear the Congolese Mulowayi, who resides in Belgium, had no intention other than to survive.
Mulowayi was originally slated to take on Nigerian heavyweight prospect Efe Ajagaba, who had to pull out of the bout because of back strain sustained in training.