LOS ANGELES_Mikey Garcia's homecoming developed into a thunderous success, both in the ovation he drew and the punches he was throwing.
Dominating his lightweight-title unification with Robert Easter Jr. on Saturday before 12,560 at Staples Center, Garcia stripped Easter of his height and reach advantages and claimed a unanimous-decision victory. Judges scored the bout 116-111, 117-110 and 118-109.
"I was the better fighter," Garcia said. "I figured out my opponent. It was a matter of figuring out timing and range."
Garcia (39-0) added Easter's International Boxing Federation belt to his own World Boxing Council 135-pound belt, and the 30-year-old fighter from Oxnard is expected to press for a shot at unbeaten welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. later this year.
Easter (21-1) started the fight smartly relying on his speed and eight-inch reach advantage by jabbing and finding early openings. But the four-division champion Garcia calmed Easter's effectiveness with head movement and powerful blows.
That adjustment set up Garcia's third-round knockdown of Easter. As the harder shots landed, Garcia moved in and found Easter with a hurtful right to the head that caused the Ohio fighter to fall into range for a hard left to the head that sent him down.
Easter's wariness of those punches was palpable in the following rounds and Garcia sent several reminders to define the middle rounds, including two pounding rights that sent Easter backward toward the close of the seventh.
By the eighth, Easter's retreat was so obvious it drew jeers from those attending Garcia's first headlining fight at Staples Center.
Easter tried a final stand in the ninth with an impressive combination, but it was quickly reduced to an afterthought thanks to a slew of body shots and blows by Garcia that again backed up Easter and brought the crowd to roar "Mi-key!"
In the co-main event, Cuban heavyweight Luis "King Kong" Ortiz unleashed a thunderous overhand right to the head and powerful left to the nose of Razvan Cojanu to record a knockout just 2 minutes 8 seconds into the second round.
Ortiz (29-1, 25 KOs) was fighting for the first time since he nearly defeated World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder before succumbing to a 10th-round stoppage in March.
Ortiz's one-two dropped Cojanu (16-4) to both knees. He tried to rise but wobbled down to find his neck propped up by the bottom rope before staggering again to force the stoppage.
Ortiz said he feels he's overcome the mental toll of the Wilder loss.
"In my mind, King Kong has not been defeated," he said. "I put into action the plan my trainer and I put together and it worked."
He said he wants to hurdle Wilder and be next in line for Anthony Joshua following the three-belt heavyweight champion's Sept. 22 title defense against Alexander Povetkin.
Unbeaten lightweight Mario Barrios knocked down Garden Grove's Jose Roman twice, the latter forcing Roman's corner to throw in the towel as their fighter sat on his stool after the eighth round.
Barrios (22-0, 14 KOs) jumped on Roman (24-3-1) with a flurry of punches in a neutral corner in the eighth, forcing Roman to the canvas and to eject his mouthpiece.
Roman rising opened him to a hard, left-handed counterpunch just before the corner had seen enough.
Lightweight prospect Jerry Perez of Oak Hills in San Bernardino County shined with a second-round knockout of Aaron Hollis.
Trained by Jose Santa Cruz, the father-trainer of featherweight world champion Leo Santa Cruz, Perez (8-0, six KOs) knocked out Hollis' mouthpiece with his first punch.
Santa Maria super-featherweight Karlos Balderas, a 2016 U.S. Olympian, improved to 6-0 with a fourth-round technical knockout of veteran Giovanni Caro at the 2:09 mark.
Fabian Maidana (16-0, 12 KOs), the brother of former 140-pound world champion Marcos Maidana, scored a seventh-round TKO of Russia's Andrey Klimov (19-5).
