Jason Easton and Glenn Foot will clash for the vacant Commonwealth super-lightweight title on March 3. It’s an intriguing scrap that will help support Josh Taylor’s SSE Hydro headline fight against Humberto Soto.
Both men have been involved in exciting fights in the past so it is almost inevitable that the styles will gel and at some point in the contest the two will go to war and create quite the spectacle for the fans. Easton’s July, 2017 fight with Belgium’s Steve Jamoye was an engaging slugfest that resulted in Jamoye being stopped in round nine but not after he had pushed Edinburgh’s Easton all the way in their IBO Inter-Continental bout. Ignore the meaningless strap on offer, this was a proper fight for both men and brought Easton into the public’s consciousness a little more as it was broadcast through highlights on Channel 5 and shown live on Spike TV.
Easton followed that up with a lopsided 12-round points win over Josef Zahradnik in November of last year in what was a much less enticing affair but probably the type of distance negotiation that Easton needed in order to progress his career. Czech visitor Zahradnik was 9-0 coming in but it was one of those steadily-built, misleading Eastern European records. Easton defended his IBO strap and that will be good experience for championship contests in the future, such as this upcoming fight with Foot which is a proper fight for both men and will be more representative of the level they currently find themselves at.
Indeed, Sunderland’s Foot has mixed at British/Commonwealth level before and will be a solid scalp for 11-0 Easton if the Scot can prevail. Foot built up a good winning record on the North East fight scene before bumping in to Sam Eggington in 2015 in a double British and Commonwealth fight. Glenn fought hard but was well behind on the scorecards when they were called into use midway through the eighth as Foot battled against a nasty cut to the left eye.
Foot rebuilt and grabbed an English super-lightweight strap before losing it midway through last year on a majority decision to Akeem Ennis Brown in front of Glenn’s hometown crowd in Sunderland. That must have hurt the 30-year-old but he bounced back two fights later in Newcastle to push touted prospect Josh Leather all the way for an IBF East/West bauble. What was essentially a fight between two British level boxers, with Leather aspiring to higher things and it served its purpose and delighted fans on both BoxNation and BT Sport.
I make Foot a real live dog in this fight. Easton is exciting and has a pleasing style but he sometimes gets hit a little too easily and Foot has good fundamentals and isn’t afraid to go to war. He can cut though and has tasted the canvas in the past. I pick Easton to win on points but it will be closely contested throughout and if Foot can get the Edinburgh man rocking at some point I wouldn’t be surprised if he got the job done himself.
