……
Howard Anthony Eastman (Born 8 December 1970 in New Amsterdam, Guyana) is an England-based Middleweight boxer nicknamed the Battersea Bomber, and currently promoted by Hennessy Sports.
Having spent time as a youth homeless, and later fought in the
Gulf WarThe Persian Gulf War , known also as the Gulf War, the First Gulf War,or often as the Second Gulf War and by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein as The Mother of all Battles, or commonly as Desert Storm, for the military response...
in the Royal Fusiliers, Eastman turned pro in March 1994 with a first round knockout of John Rice. He garnered a reputation as a heavy puncher in the gyms of the UK, where he regularly sparred with Light Heavyweights and the likes of then-world champion
Chris EubankChris Eubank is a retired boxer and British celebrity who held the WBO Middleweight and Super Middleweight titles...
.
……
Howard Anthony Eastman (Born 8 December 1970 in New Amsterdam, Guyana) is an England-based Middleweight boxer nicknamed the Battersea Bomber, and currently promoted by Hennessy Sports.
Early years
Having spent time as a youth homeless, and later fought in the
Gulf WarThe Persian Gulf War , known also as the Gulf War, the First Gulf War,or often as the Second Gulf War and by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein as The Mother of all Battles, or commonly as Desert Storm, for the military response...
in the Royal Fusiliers, Eastman turned pro in March 1994 with a first round knockout of John Rice. He garnered a reputation as a heavy puncher in the gyms of the UK, where he regularly sparred with Light Heavyweights and the likes of then-world champion
Chris EubankChris Eubank is a retired boxer and British celebrity who held the WBO Middleweight and Super Middleweight titles...
. However his career progressed slowly and at a low profile for many years as fellow British boxers were reluctant to face him.
He accumulated an 18-0 (16 knockouts) record before challenging Steve "The Viking" Foster in November 1998 for the British Middleweight title, which he won via 7th round knockout.
In September 2000 he won the Commonwealth Middleweight title by outpointing Australian-based Egyptian (and future #1 contender)
Sam SolimanSam Soliman is an Australian boxer of Coptic Egyptian descent. Soliman began his boxing career after studying multiple forms of martial arts, such as Tae Kwon Do, Karate, and Kick-Boxing.-Amateur Boxing Career:...
, and finally began receiving wider coverage.
World title challenger
In April 2001, having put together a 31-0 (28 knockouts) record, he got a high profile fight defending his British and Commonwealth titles and challenging for the vacant European title against
Robert McCrackenRobert McCracken is a former British Middleweight Boxer and world title challenger from Birmingham, England. Robert worked as a wood machinist at Hoskins Cabinet Works,Bordesley,Birmingham before turning to boxing.He was affectionately known as "boxing Bob". McCracken turned pro in 1991 in the...
, a highly regarded British fighter who had unsuccessfully challenged Keith Holmes for the WBC world title the previous year.
Eastman dominated the fight and dropped McCracken, stopping him in the 10th round (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/boxing/1271093.stm). Following this success promoter Don King signed him up and in November 2001 he fought two-time champ
William JoppyWilliam Torelle Joppy is an American middleweight boxer. Joppy held the WBA middleweight title on two occasions. He first became the WBA champion in June 1996 by stopping defender Shinji Takehara in Japan with a flurry of punches in the ninth round. He then would make a couple defenses of his crown...
for the vacant WBA world title on a
Lennox LewisLennox Claudius Lewis, CM, CBE is a retired boxer and former undisputed World heavyweight champion. He won gold for Canada at the 1988 Olympic Games as an amateur....
undercard in Las Vegas.
Eastman posed and played too much it was decided, as he narrowly lost a controversial (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/boxing/1662532.stm) majority decision despite knocking Joppy down in the final seconds of the twelfth round. After this fight Eastman sat out a year in Guyana and let his contract with King expire.
He resurfaced in late 2002 now under the Hennessy Sports promotional outfit and trained by ex-victim Robert McCracken, and scored two knockouts over Chardan Ansoula and Hussain Osman. He regained his European title in January 2003 against the French man Christophe Tendil, who he stopped in five rounds with a broken jaw (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/boxing/2691469.stm), and regained his British and Commonwealth titles by knocking out
Scott DannScott Dann is an English professional footballer who joined Birmingham City in June 2009, having previously played for Walsall and Coventry City.-Walsall:...
in three rounds. He defended the European title twice more, stopping ex-world champion
Hacine CherifiHacine "Billy" Cherifi is a former French boxer.Cherifi, known as "Billy", began his pro career in 1989 and challenged for the WBC Super Middleweight Title in 1997 against Robin Reid, losing a split decision...
in eight rounds in July 2003 and outpointing Sergey Tatevoysan in January 2004.
Now with a 40-1 record and highly ranked by all sanctioning bodies, Eastman finally got the 39 year old undisputed Middleweight king
Bernard HopkinsBernard Hopkins, known as the Executioner is an American boxer. He is best known for his ten year reign as middleweight world champion in which he successfully defended his title a record 20 times. He is the first fighter to retain all 4 major boxing governing body belts including the Ring...
into the ring to defend his titles, in February 2005 in Los Angeles. Eastman was outsmarted and widely outpointed by Hopkins (110-119, 111-117, 112-116) who was making his historic 20th defence. Post fight there was initial talk of a rematch, however as the scores suggest the contest for not close enough for this to materialize. (http://www.hennessysports.com/Article.asp?art=157)
After the world title fights
Eastman travelled to Germany in July 2005 to fight a WBA eliminator against hard hitting
ArmeniaArmenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
n
Arthur Abraham"King" Arthur Abraham is an Armenian professional boxer residing in Berlin, Germany. He has been undefeated as IBF Middleweight World champion.- Biography :...
, Eastman lost the fight on points however claimed he had been robbed of the decision.(http://www.hennessysports.com/Article.asp?art=204) Abraham would go on to win the vacant IBF world title after the unified middleweight title was fractured after Bernard Hopkins loss to Jermain Taylor.
In March 2006 he travelled to the US and took on another risky eliminator, this time for the IBF title, however was controversially stopped on his feet by the hard hitting undefeated Colombian Edison Miranda. Once more Eastman protested (http://www.hennessysports.com/Article.asp?art=274) claiming that he should have been allowed to continue since he had not been down in the fight.
Reclaiming his belts
On December 15 2006 he regained his British Middleweight title by knocking out Richard Williams in the 12th and final round in London, England. Eastman was well ahead on all scorecards at the time of stoppage.
In April 2007 Eastman added the Commonwealth belt to the British title with a 12 round points decision over the Kenyan
Evans AshiraEvans Ashira is a boxer who is best known for his loss to Joe Calzaghe in 2005....
-who had recently challenged
Joe CalzagheJoseph William Calzaghe CBE is a Welsh former professional boxer who retired undefeated. He was rated by Ring magazine as pound for pound one of the top 10 boxers in the world, He retired in February 2009 with an undefeated record, becoming only the third European boxer, after Terry Marsh and Sven...
in a Super-Middleweight title fight- in Dudley. The bout was scrappy as the scorecards suggested, Eastman prevailing 116-113, 116-112, 116-113.
In September 2007 Eastmans revival was ended. When defending his British title against domestic fighter
Wayne ElcockWayne Elcock is an English boxer. He is the current British Middleweight champion, having won the title from Howard Eastman in September 2007. Elcock has also held the lightly-regarded WBU middleweight title. As of December 2007, he has had 21 professional fights, with 18 wins and three losses...
Eastman was surprisingly outworked and outpunched, dropping a shock points defeat by margins of 113-116, 113-115, 114-115. Elcock had previously been knocked out by Eastman-victim Scott Dann.
Eastman was offered a final shot at contention, matched with popular Irish puncher
John DuddyJohn Francis Duddy is a middleweight professional boxer. Duddy fights under the moniker of Ireland's John Duddy or The Derry Destroyer....
in Belfast. After a competitive 10 rounds, the 37 year old Eastman lost a unanimous decision.