Robert Easter Jr. and Rances Barthelemy fought to a split-draw on Saturday night (Photo: Esther Lin – SHOWTIME)
By Chris Robinson
On Saturday night, with the vacant WBA lightweight title on the line, former two-division champion Rances Barthelemy and former IBF lightweight champion Robert Easter Jr. fought to an uneventful split-draw verdict. The bout aired on SHOWTIME from the Chelsea inside The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
The fight was largely void of any real action, with scorecards reading 115-113 Barthelemy, 115-113 Easter, and 114-114.
“I feel I did enough to win this fight but the judges saw it differently,” said Easter (21-1-1, 14 KO’s). “They saw it a different way. Rances is a crafty fighter, an elusive fighter. I tried to take the fight to him but he wouldn’t take it. It was hard to land my shots.”
Easter was looking to bounce back from a unanimous decision loss to Mikey Garcia last July while the Cuban Barthelemy (27-1-1, 14 KO’s) was moving down to lightweight following a loss to Kiryl Relikh in a bid to become a three-weight world champion two fights ago.
“Robert was absent in the ring tonight,” Barthelemy said. “I wanted him to land his right and he didn’t. I wanted him to come forward and he didn’t. We were prepared for a different Robert Easter, the one that attacks, but he didn’t show up so I couldn’t deliver my strategy.”
Each man will now move on with their careers and both could likely be heading to 140 pounds in the near future.
Chris Robinson can be reached at CRobinson@hustleboss.com