When Mikey Garcia bypassed lucrative fights with fellow Golden Boy Promotions boxers Miguel Cotto and Jorge Linares, it was believed he was headed toward a lightweight unification fight with Robert Easter.

After all, both Garcia and Easter compete under the PBC banner, and it shaped up as a high-profile bout that would be a financial windfall for each man.

Instead, Garcia is preparing for a junior welterweight title challenge against Sergey Lipinets on February 10, while Easter readies for a lightweight title defense vs. Javier Fortuna on January 20.

When pressed, Garcia said facining Lipinets made more financial sense than a meeting with Easter.

“That’s just a lame excuse to not fight,” Easter said during a media conference call Thursday. “I don’t produce enough fans? What does Lipinets – no disrespect to him – but come on now. Everybody knows that is not true. I have fans all over. My fan base is big.

“Like I said, man, it don’t matter if we fought in a room with nobody. It shouldn’t even matter. If the money’s good and the contract’s good, then we should fight. I wouldn’t care about fighting in front of nobody, because I know what I’m gonna do.”

Easter (20-0, 14 knockouts) routinely draws large crowds in his native Ohio, and is a bigger name in the sport than Lipinets. There’s also no doubting Easter would present a far bigger challenge to Garcia.

Sure, Lipinets may be the natural 140-pounder, but Easter is 5-foot-11, five inches taller than Garcia, and he’s a rangy puncher who can also move.

He’s impressed so far, and sooner or later, if he keeps winning, the demand will grow for a fight with Garcia.

“If I was that much an easy fight, the fight would’ve been made off the offer they gave Mikey,” Easter said. “It would’ve been made. It just didn’t make sense, all these excuses. I don’t make no excuses. I’m coming to fight and they know that.

“I wanted the fight. It was serious on my side. I don’t care where, how much, none of that. I wanted the fight.”

Mike Coppinger is the Senior Writer for RingTV.com. Follow him on Twitter: @MikeCoppinger