HOWARD EASTMAN
PROFILE AND BIO
At the age of 34, Howard Eastman has been a pro-fighter for over 10 years. He has won eight fights in a row dating back to November 2001. His only pro loss came in a world title challenge against WBA middleweight champion, William Joppy.
Mike Lewis wrote in the London Telegraph, "Howard Eastman remains haunted by the night he let a world title slip from his grasp. Faced with a world-class foe in American William Joppy in Las Vegas in November 2001, the Battersea Bomber sent his rival to the canvas in the final seconds of an absorbing fight, only to end up dropping a majority points decision.
" 'I think about that fight every ay of my life,' confessed Eastman, who despite being one of Britain's few world-class operators, still appears better-known for his dyed goetee beard and eccentric reputation. 'But I don't consider that Joppy fight a defeat. It was a robbery. Even the American public were on my side.'
"Support is something Eastman has frequently lacked. Widely regarded as a wayward maverick, he appears, at one time or another, to have crossed swords with just about every significant figure in the British fight game.
"Banished from his strict West Indian home in his late teens, the Guyana-born Eastman - a cousin of cricketer Carl Hooper - spent a couple of years living rough in South London. A near-fatal motorcycle accident coupled with his singular outlook, and a stubborn refusal to conform, helped to fuel his reputation as a bit of a fruitcake.
"After years of swapping trainers with alarming frequency - John Rooney was cursorily dismissed days before the Joppy fight - Eastman seems settled with Birmingham's Robert McCracken, the man he stopped in 10 rounds in a classic triple title showdown in April 2001. Genuine bad feeling between the pair triggered an unseemly scuffle in the run-up to that fight, but Eastman and McCracken have now forged a strong alliance.
"Away from boxing, Eastman retains his love for fast motorbikes, but recently sold his collection of 30 pet parrots claiming that he needed to concentrate on boxing. 'One of the birds was called Tyson,' he chuckled. 'He didn't actually go round biting people's ears, but he was a particularly vicious parrot.'[End story]
Howard Eastman was born and raised in New Amsterdam, Guyana and moved to England with his family when he was nearly 15 years old. His brother, Gilbert, is a boxer, and holds the Southern Area title in England.
Eastman states he became interested in boxing at school. He said, "I was bullied at school, and one day I hit the bully back. He fell down. He never bullied anyone again. I knew from then on that I had a talent for boxing and that one day I was going to be a champion...
"My father threw me out of the house when I was a teenager. You'll have to ask him shy. I was living on streets of London from the age of 16 to 18. My family had just moved to London from Guyana, and it was so cold there, not like the warm climate of the Caribbean. I had no family to go to. I had nowhere to turn. Getting off the streets was the biggest battle of my life."
Regarding Bernard Hopkins, Howard said, "I've got a gameplan to beat him, but I'm not telling! I will say, though, that I am the only middleweight in the world capable of beating him."
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