READING, PA — Erickson Lubin wanted to make a point Saturday night on Showtime Boxing: Special Edition from the Santander Arena in Reading, Pa. Lubin needed to prove he was a viable match for anyone at 154 pounds again.

He may not have received a full answer after dismantling substitute Nathaniel Gallimore in a unanimous 10-round decision by scores of 99-91 on all three scorecards. But the victory certainly helped place  another level in Lubin’s rising confidence after his first-round knockout loss to Jermell Charlo in October 2017.

Lubin (22-1, 16 knockouts) won for the third time in 2019 and garnered his fourth-straight victory overall since the Charlo setback.

Gallimore (21-4-1, 17 KOs) replaced Terrell Gausha, who injured his hand in sparring.

“I had a tremendous training camp thanks to Kevin Cunningham,” Lubin said. “At first, we had Terrell Gausha but he fell out due to an injury. I appreciate Gallimore for stepping up to the plate.  He gave me a tough fight and I appreciate it. We gave the fans what they wanted. I measured him. I just timed him and I was able to land my power shows.

“Kevin is a real strict trainer and he’s a southpaw specialist. We just improving our game very camp. I definitely want Jermell Charlo again. My goal is to get revenge. I thought I boxed really well. We stuck to the game plan.

“We drew the game plan up in camp and we executed. I knew he was tough and his game plan was to rough me up. I wasn’t going to fall into his game plan. I have good power and I used my boxing ability. That really helped me.”

Gallimore was completely outclassed. Lubin landed 137/471 (29%) total punches, 46/256 jabs (18%) and 91/215 power shots (42%). Lubin almost doubled Gallimore’s 66/419 (16%) total output.

“Lubin was slick and I just couldn’t get my punches off,” Gallimore admitted. “He was the better man tonight but I will be back and better. I was never hurt during the fight. We bumped legs a couple times and he was able to land a couple shots while I was off balance. It’s always difficult to fight a southpaw.”

“I could have done more but I kept fighting to the end just like I always will. It just wasn’t my night.”

In the co-feature, Robert Easter Jr. and Adrian Granados put on a show in a 10-round, 140-pound clash.

Easter, the former IBF lightweight beltholder, was making his debut at 140. Easter (22-1-1, 14 KOs) also had not won a fight since January 2018. That draught ended against the game, though somewhat overmatched Granados (20-8-2, 13 KOs).

The stats bore out in favor of Granados, who landed a total of 391/994 (39%) punches, 68/204 (33%) jabs and 323/790 (41%) power punches. Those numbers exceed what Easter did, connecting on 239/821 (29%) total shots, 31/232 (13%) jabs and 208/589 (35%) power shots.

The judges didn’t see it that way. Neither did many at ringside.

Easter was awarded on the scorecards of judges Julie Lederman (98-92), Kevin Morgan (97-93) and somehow John Poturaj saw it a shutout for Easter (100-90).

Easter won the fight on accurate, effective punching.

Granados didn’t want to hear it.

“I’m speechless,” he said. “I felt like I won the fight. That 100 to 90? Come on now. I’m tired of the same old story. It was clear that I controlled the fight. He never had me hurt. That was embarrassing.

“I can’t control the judging. It’s very frustrating. I have a dream to be a world champion and it just seems like it’s not cutting out for me. But I have the heart of a champion and I’m not giving up.”

But the two didn’t back away from each other. And though Easter vowed he would change his old ways, like allowing smaller fighters inside, and box more—that attitude didn’t last long.

“We knew he was going to be a hell of a warrior in there,” Easter said. “That’s what we train for. This was no ordinary opponent and we knew he was going to bring it. I wasn’t surprised because that’s what he does. You’ve seen him fight with the best of the best and he threw down. I knew he was going to throw punches in bunches.

“I felt strong at 140-pounds. I held my own. It was something new for me and I felt comfortable. Granados came and brought it and I knew he would make me fight.”

In the first televised fight, Cuban expatriate Frank Sanchez (14-0, 11 KOs) easily beat Jack Mulowayi (7-2-1, 3 KOs). It was hardly a fight. Sanchez won by unanimous scores of 100-90. Mulowayi landed just 30 punches the entire fight.

Afterward, Sanchez has a serious complaint, stating, “My opponent didn’t really want to fight, he just wanted to fight dirty. So, all I could do was give him some lateral movement. It’s difficult when someone doesn’t want to engage.

“We wanted to touch him down, touch him up high. But once he got touched, the guy just tried to tie up. I tried to hit him at the belt to get his guard down but when the opponent doesn’t want to fight it’s very tough. There was no problem going 10 rounds. I’m in great shape and I’m ready to fight again as soon as possible.

“I showed my technical superiority tonight. All the heavyweights better watch out.”

“I took his punches well,” Mulowayi said. “He is fast and a good counter puncher, and I could not connect with the kind of shots I wanted. I felt I was starting to land punches after the seventh round. I should have pressed from the beginning like my team told me to.”

On the non-televised undercard, super featherweight Ricky Lopez (21-4-1, 6 KOs) scored a 10-round decision over Joe Perez (14-4-2, 10 KOs).

Other off-TV fights featured promising bantamweight Jonathon Torres (7-0, 3 KOs) squash Julio Garcia (3-3, 2 KOs), winning by TKO at 2:04 of round two. Lithuanian welterweight Eimantas Stanionis (9-0, 6 KOs) stopped Evincii Dixon (9-24-2, 4 KOs) at 2:11 of the first. In a scheduled four-round heavyweight bout, Norm Neely (4-0, 4 KOs) looked very impressive in knocking out D’Angelo Swaby (1-1, 1 KO) at 2:01 of the first.

Super featherweight Jessy Cruz (18-7-1, 7 KOs) won a six-round decision over Ernesto Guerrero (32-30, 22 KOs). Middleweight Antonio Hernandez (2-9) pulled off a mild upset over rangy middleweight Zamy Larry (1-1, 1 KO) with a four-round majority decision. In a scheduled four-round middleweight fight, Brent Oren (2-2) pulled off another slight upset by spoiling the record of Zach Dubnoff (3-1, 1 KO) with a unanimous decision.

Super bantamweight Raeese Aleem (15-0, 9 KOs) remained undefeated when Saul Hernandez (14-15-1, 9 KOs) didn’t answer the bell for the fourth round. Welterweight Jose Miguel Borrego (16-2, 14 KOs) stopped Likar Ramos (29-9, 22 KOs) at 1:58 of round three. Super middleweight southpaw Darrion Lawson (2-0, 2 KOs) knocked out Rene Nazare (0-5) at 1:43 of the second. In a scheduled six-round cruiserweight fight, Brandon Glanton (11-0, 9 KOs) chopped up Jose Corral (20-26, 12 KOs) in three, when Corral couldn’t answer the bell for the fourth in the first fight of the night.

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