LAS VEGAS – Not even Rances Barthelemy himself could watch a replay of his infamous split draw with Robert Easter Jr. in its entirety.
In hindsight, Barthelemy realizes why their 12-round, 135-pound bout is despised by boxing fans as one of the dullest televised fights in the sport’s recent history. Barthelemy believed their styles could mesh and help them produce an entertaining fight for fans in April 2019 at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
Easter and Barthelemy instead allowed one actionless round pass after another and settled for a remarkably boring bout that Showtime televised.
“I never forgot that fight,” Barthelemy told BoxingScene.com. “To be honest with you, when I watched it on YouTube I had to fast forward through it. What happened was I was expecting Easter to be way more aggressive, to cut off my angles and come after me. So, I prepared more like a counterpuncher rather than engaging with him.
“But what happened? He also turned out to be on his back foot, being more of a counterpuncher. So, what ended up happening was the clash of styles never materialized. It ended up being the two of us counterpunching.”
CompuBox credited Easter with connecting on only 54-of-415 total punches over 12 rounds, two more than Barthelemy (52-of-328).
The 37-year-old Barthelemy promised to make up for that uneventful fight when he returns to The Cosmopolitan on Saturday night for the first time since he faced Easter four years ago. The Cuban contender anticipates an action-packed fight against a younger, hungry Omar Juarez (14-1, 5 KOs), who will encounter the most experienced, highest-rated opponent of his four-year professional career in the co-feature of a “Showtime Championship Boxing” tripleheader (9 p.m. EDT; 6 p.m. PDT).
“Just look at the difference from [the Easter fight] and the fight I had with Russell,” Barthelemy said in reference to his controversial sixth-round, technical-knockout loss to Gary Antuanne Russell last July 30 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. “My trainer and my strength and conditioning coach have made a huge difference for me since then. And you’ll see the kind of entertainment fans deserve on Saturday night.”
The 23-year-old Juarez, of Brownsville, Texas, has won three straight fights since he surprisingly lost a 10-round majority decision to Filipino southpaw All Rivera in June 2021 at The Armory in Minneapolis. Juarez was knocked down during the ninth round by Rivera (22-5, 18 KOs), who won their back-and-forth action fight on two scorecards (96-93, 95-94, 95-95).
In Rivera’s previous fight, Barthelemy beat him by unanimous decision. Barthelemy won that 10-rounder comfortably on all three scorecards (100-90, 99-91, 97-93) in January 2021 at Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall in Los Angeles.
Barthelemy hasn’t overanalyzed how he and Juarez fared against Rivera.
“I’m not making any assumptions or underestimating who Omar Juarez is,” Barthelemy said. “He’s a hungry, young lion trying to make a big leap forward and trying to prove himself within the division.”
Rolando “Rolly” Romero (14-1, 12 KOs), of North Las Vegas, and Venezuela’s Ismael Barroso (24-3-2, 22 KOs) will fight for the vacant WBA super lightweight title in Showtime’s 12-round main event Saturday night. Uzbekistan’s Batyr Akhmedov (9-2, 8 KOs) and Chicago’s Kenneth Sims Jr. (19-2-1, 7 KOs) will square off in Showtime’s opening bout, a 12-round WBA 140-pound elimination match.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.