Howard Eastman
Born	Howard Anthony Eastman (1970-12-08) 8 December 1970 New Amsterdam, Guyana
Nationality	British Guyanese
Other names	The Battersea Bomber
Statistics
Weight(s)	Middleweight
Height	5 ft 11 in (180 cm)
Reach	74 in (188 cm)
Stance	Orthodox
Boxing record
Total fights	62
Wins	49
Wins by KO	38
Losses	13

Howard Anthony Eastman (born 8 December 1970) is a Guyanese-British former professional boxer who competed from 1994 to 2014. He challenged twice for middleweight world championships; the vacant WBA title in 2001; and the undisputed title against Bernard Hopkins in 2005. At regional level, he held the British, Commonwealth and EBU European middleweight titles twice each between 1998 and 2007.

Early years

Having spent some time homeless, Eastman later served in the Gulf War in the Royal Fusiliers. He turned professional 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 Super Middleweights, such as Chris Eubank. 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.

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 McCracken, 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.^[1]

Following this match, U.S. promoter Don King signed him up and in November 2001 he fought two-time champ William Joppy for the vacant WBA world title on a Lennox Lewis undercard in Las Vegas. Eastman narrowly lost a controversial 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.

Eastman resurfaced in late 2002, under the Hennessy Sports promotional outfit, and trained by former opponent McCracken. Eastman scored two knockouts, over Chardan Ansoula and Hussain Osman, respectively. He regained his European title in January 2003 against the French man Christophe Tendil, whom he stopped in five rounds with a broken jaw,^[2] 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 forty-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 (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.^[3]

After the world title fights

Eastman travelled to Germany in July 2005 to fight a WBA eliminator against hard hitting Armenian Arthur Abraham, Eastman lost the fight on points however claimed he had been robbed of the decision.^[4] Abraham went on to win the vacant IBF world title after the unified middleweight title was fractured after Hopkins lost to Jermain Taylor.

In March 2006, Eastman traveled to the U.S. and took on another risky eliminator, this time for the IBF title. He was stopped on his feet by the undefeated Colombian-Puerto Rican Edison Miranda. Eastman protested that he should have been allowed to continue since he had not been down in the fight.^[5]

Reclaiming his belts

On 15 December 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 by the time the match ended.

In April 2007, Eastman added the Commonwealth belt to the British title with a 12-round points decision over the Kenyan Evans Ashira in Dudley. Eastman prevailed 116-113, 116-112, 116-113.

In September 2007, Eastmans revival was ended. When defending his British title against domestic fighter Wayne Elcock 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 John Duddy in Belfast. After a competitive 10 rounds, Eastman lost a unanimous decision.

Guyana

Eastman has continued his career in his country of birth, Guyana. He beat Denny Dalton to claim the Guyanese middleweight title, before securing victories over former WBA world welterweight champion Andrew Lewis, Leon Gilkes and Kevin Placide. In 2010 he served time in prison for possession of cannabis.

However, following the Placide fight, he went on a six-fight losing streak, losing to Kwesi Jones (September 2010, UD4), Kirt Sinnette (July 2011, TKO8, for the vacant WBC CABOFE light-heavyweight title), Edmund DeClou (October 2011, MD12, for the vacant Guyanese middleweight title), two defeats to Simeon Hardy in 2012 (UD10 and MD8) and Sakima Mullings (April 2013, UD12, for the vacant WBC CABOFE welterweight title).

Eastman ended this streak in August 2013, when he took a unanimous decision over Mark Austin over 8 rounds. In 2014, he entered the Jamaican version of the Contender series, where he was the second seed behind the aforementioned Mullings, and part of the Caribbean team. In his first fight against the Jamaican team, Eastman stopped Derrick Spencer in two rounds, his quickest win since 2003.^[6]

Professional boxing record

No.	Result	Record	Opponent	Type	Round, time	Date	Location	More
62	Loss	49–13	Tsetsi Davis	UD	8	18 Jun 2014	Wray & Nephew Contender Coliseum, Kingston, Jamaica
61	Win	49–12	Kevin Hylton	UD	6	21 May 2014	Chinese Benevolent Association Auditorium, Kingston, Jamaica
60	Win	48–12	Derrick Spencer	KO	2 (6), 1:50	30 Apr 2014	Chinese Benevolent Association Auditorium, Kingston, Jamaica
59	Win	47–12	Mark Austin	UD	8	3 Aug 2013	Cliff Anderson Sports Hall, Georgetown, Guyana
58	Loss	46–12	Sakima Mullings	UD	12	20 Apr 2013	Princess Hotel, Georgetown, Guyana
57	Loss	46–11	Simeon Hardy	MD	8	13 Oct 2012	Thirst Park, Georgetown, Guyana
56	Loss	46–10	Simeon Hardy	UD	10	1 Jun 2012	Cliff Anderson Sports Hall, Georgetown, Guyana
55	Loss	46–9	Edmund DeClou	MD	12	29 Oct 2011	Thirst Park, Georgetown, Guyana	For vacant Guyanese middleweight title
54	Loss	46–8	Kirt Sinnette	TKO	8 (10)	29 Jul 2011	Jean Pierre Sports Complex, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
53	Loss	46–7	Kwesi Jones	UD	4	24 Sep 2010	Cliff Anderson Sports Hall, Georgetown, Guyana
52	Win	46–6	Kevin Placide	KO	10 (10), 2:19	26 Sep 2009	Cliff Anderson Sports Hall, Georgetown, Guyana
51	Win	45–6	Leon Gilkes	UD	10	28 Feb 2009	Cliff Anderson Sports Hall, Georgetown, Guyana
50	Win	44–6	Andrew Lewis	SD	12	25 Oct 2008	Guyana National Stadium, Georgetown, Guyana	Retained Guyanese middleweight title
49	Win	43–6	Denny Dalton	MD	12	5 Jul 2008	Cliff Anderson Sports Hall, Georgetown, Guyana	Won Guyanese middleweight title
48	Loss	42–6	John Duddy	PTS	10	8 Dec 2007	King's Hall, Belfast, Northern Ireland
47	Loss	42–5	Wayne Elcock	UD	12	28 Sep 2007	Coventry Skydome, Coventry, England	Lost BBBofC British middleweight title
46	Win	42–4	Evans Ashira	UD	12	20 Apr 2007	Dudley Town Hall, Dudley, England	Won vacant Commonwealth middleweight title
45	Win	41–4	Richard Williams	KO	12 (12), 2:06	15 Dec 2006	York Hall, London, England	Won vacant BBBofC British middleweight title
44	Loss	40–4	Edison Miranda	TKO	7 (12), 2:33	24 Mar 2006	Hard Rock Live, Hollywood, Florida, U.S.
43	Loss	40–3	Arthur Abraham	UD	12	16 Jul 2005	Nuremberg Arena, Nuremberg, Germany	For WBA Inter-Continental middleweight title
42	Loss	40–2	Bernard Hopkins	UD	12	19 Feb 2005	Staples Center, Los Angeles, California, U.S.	For WBA (Undisputed), WBC, IBF, WBO, and The Ring middleweight titles
41	Win	40–1	Jerry Elliott	PTS	10	24 Sep 2004	Nottingham Arena, Nottingham, England
40	Win	39–1	Sergey Tatevosyan	UD	12	30 Jan 2004	Goresbrook Leisure Centre, Dagenham, England	Retained EBU European middleweight title
39	Win	38–1	Hacine Cherifi	RTD	8 (12), 3:00	25 Jul 2003	Sports Village, Norwich, England	Retained EBU European middleweight title
38	Win	37–1	Scott Dann	TKO	3 (12), 2:52	16 Apr 2003	Nottingham Arena, Nottingham, England	Retained EBU European, Commonwealth, and BBBofC British middleweight titles
37	Win	36–1	Gary Beardsley	TKO	2 (8), 2:27	5 Mar 2003	York Hall, London, England
36	Win	35–1	Christophe Tendil	RTD	3 (12), 3:00	21 Jan 2003	Nottingham Arena, Nottingham, England	Won vacant EBU European middleweight title
35	Win	34–1	Hussain Osman	RTD	4 (8), 3:00	21 Dec 2002	Goresbrook Leisure Centre, Dagenham, England
34	Win	33–1	Charden Ansoula	TKO	1 (8), 1:03	25 Oct 2002	York Hall, London, England
33	Loss	32–1	William Joppy	MD	12	17 Nov 2001	Mandalay Bay Events Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.	For vacant WBA (Regular) middleweight title
32	Win	32–0	Robert McCracken	TKO	10 (12), 1:54	10 Apr 2001	Wembley Conference Centre, London, England	Retained Commonwealth and BBBofC British middleweight titles; Won vacant EBU European middleweight title
31	Win	31–0	Mark Baker	RTD	5 (10), 3:00	5 Feb 2001	Hull City Hall, Kingston upon Hull, England
30	Win	30–0	Sam Soliman	PTS	12	16 Sep 2000	York Hall, London, England	Won Commonwealth middleweight title
29	Win	29–0	Akhmet Dottuev	RTD	4 (10), 3:00	25 Jul 2000	Elephant & Castle Centre, London, England	Won WBA International middleweight title
28	Win	28–0	Anthony Ivory	RTD	6 (8), 3:00	29 Apr 2000	Wembley Arena, London, England
27	Win	27–0	Viktor Fesechko	RTD	4 (10), 3:00	4 Mar 2000	Werrington Sports Centre, Peterborough, England
26	Win	26–0	Ojay Abrahams	TKO	2 (10)	18 Jan 2000	Mansfield Leisure Centre, Mansfield, England
25	Win	25–0	Mike Algoet	TKO	8 (12), 1:45	13 Nov 1999	K.C. Sports Arena, Kingston upon Hull, England	Won CBA middleweight title
24	Win	24–0	Derek Wormald	TKO	3 (12), 2:56	13 Sep 1999	York Hall, London, England	Won BBBofC British middleweight title
23	Win	23–0	Teimuraz Kekelidze	RTD	6 (12), 3:00	10 Jul 1999	Elephant & Castle Centre, London, England	Won WBA Continental middleweight title
22	Win	22–0	Roman Babaev	TKO	7 (12), 1:44	22 May 1999	Maysfield Leisure Centre, Belfast, Northern Ireland	Won WBA Inter-Continental middleweight title
21	Win	21–0	Jon Penn	TKO	3 (12), 1:36	6 Mar 1999	Elephant & Castle Centre, London, England	Won vacant IBO Inter-Continental super middleweight title
20	Win	20–0	Jason Barker	TKO	6 (8), 2:25	4 Feb 1999	Concert Theatre, London, England
19	Win	19–0	Steve Foster	TKO	7 (12), 1:45	30 Nov 1998	Bowlers Exhibition Centre, Manchester, England	Won vacant BBBofC British middleweight title
18	Win	18–0	Darren Ashton	TKO	4 (8), 0:54	23 May 1998	York Hall, London, England
17	Win	17–0	Terry Morrill	RTD	4 (8), 3:00	28 Mar 1998	Hull Arena, Kingston upon Hull, England
16	Win	16–0	Vitaly Kopytko	PTS	8	14 Feb 1998	Elephant & Castle Centre, London, England
15	Win	15–0	Rachid Serdjane	TKO	7 (8), 3:00	25 Mar 1997	Lewisham Theatre, London, England
14	Win	14–0	John Duckworth	KO	7 (8), 0:30	18 Feb 1997	Grundy Park Leisure Centre, Cheshunt, England
13	Win	13–0	Sven Hamer	TKO	10 (10)	11 Dec 1996	Elephant & Castle Centre, London, England	Won vacant BBBofC Southern Area middleweight title
12	Win	12–0	John Duckworth	TKO	5 (8)	29 Apr 1996	Marriott Hotel, London, England
11	Win	11–0	Steve Goodwin	TKO	5 (8)	13 Mar 1996	Brent Town Hall, London, England
10	Win	10–0	Paul Wesley	TKO	1 (6), 2:32	31 Jan 1996	Aston Villa Leisure Centre, Birmingham, England
9	Win	9–0	Brendan Ryan	TKO	2 (6)	29 Nov 1995	York Hall, London, England
8	Win	8–0	Carlo Colarusso	TKO	1 (6)	16 Oct 1995	Marriott Hotel, London, England
7	Win	7–0	Peter Vosper	TKO	1 (6)	23 Jun 1995	York Hall, London, England
6	Win	6–0	Stuart Dunn	TKO	2 (6)	20 Apr 1995	London Hilton on Park Lane, London, England
5	Win	5–0	Marty Duke	TKO	1 (6)	6 Mar 1995	Marriott Hotel, London, England
4	Win	4–0	Barry Thorogood	TKO	6 (6)	17 Oct 1994	Marriott Hotel, London, England
3	Win	3–0	Steve Phillips	TKO	5 (6), 1:18	22 Mar 1994	York Hall, London, England
2	Win	2–0	Andy Peach	PTS	6	14 Mar 1994	Marriott Hotel, London, England
1	Win	1–0	John Rice	TKO	1 (6)	6 Mar 1994	Elephant & Castle Centre, London, England

See also

• List of British middleweight boxing champions

References

External links

• Boxing record for Howard Eastman from BoxRec (registration required)