Howard Eastman
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| Howard Eastman | |
| Statistics | |
|---|---|
| Real name | Howard Anthony Eastman |
| Nickname | The Battersea Bomber |
| Weight | Middleweight |
| Nationality |  British |
| Birth date | December 8, 1970 |
| Birth place | New Amsterdam, Guyana |
| Style | Orthodox |
| Boxing record | |
| Total fights | 45 |
| Wins | 41 |
| Wins by KO | 35 |
| Losses | 4 |
| Draws | 0 |
| No contests | 0 |
Howard Anthony Eastman (Born 8 December 1970 in New Amsterdam, Guyana) is a London, England-based Middleweight boxer nicknamed the Battersea Bomber, and currently promoted by Hennessy Sports.
[edit] Early years
Having spent time as a youth homeless, and later fought in the Gulf War in the Royal Fusiliers, Eastman turned pro in March of 1994 with a first round knockout of John Rice. He garned 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 Eubank. 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 Soliman, and finally began receiving wider coverage.
[edit] 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 McCraken, 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 McCraken, stopping him in the 10th round. Promoter Don King signed him up and in November of 2001 he fought two-time champ William Joppy for the vacant WBA world title on a Lennox Lewis undercard in Las Vegas.
Eastman posed and played too much it was decided, as he narrowly lost a 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 Hennessy Sports 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, and regained his British and Commonwealth titles by knocking out Scott Dann in three rounds. He defended the European title twice more, stopping ex-world champion Hacine Cherifi 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 Hopkins into the ring to defend his titles, in February 2005 in Los Angeles. Eastman was outsmarted and widely outpointed by Hopkins, who was making his historic 20th defence.
[edit] After the world title fights
He travelled to Germany in July 2005 to fight a WBA eliminator against hard hitting contender Arthur Abraham, however lost a close and controversial decision. Abraham went on to win the vacant IBF world title.
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 Colombian Edison Miranda. Many in the boxing press feel at age 35 Eastman's career is over.
On December 15th 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 socrecards at the time of stoppage.
