Howard Eastman

Eastman was very good, had power in both hands, good chin, solid fundamentals, was robbed against Joppy, which should have been his crowning moment, dominated the domestic British and European scene for years at 160. He was never going to beat Hopkins, though.

 

Basically this ^^, though I did think Joppy eeked out the close win.. He was very good. Perennial top 10,eventop 5 at times. But With Bernard there, was not going to win the belts.

He was a very good 'tester' for potential champs IMO. You had to be solid and a top contender to beat him.

 

He would more than likely win a world title at middleweight today

 

He was one of my favourite fighters growing up. My dad knew him from training in the gyms and for my tenth birthday took me all the way from our house in Brixton to the Aston Villa Leisure centre in Birmingham for his fight against Paul Wesley. He kept on about how it was my tenth birthday and Howards tenth fight lol, I miss my dad god bless his soul.
But yeah Howard Eastman was a tough fighter. Never backed down and always turned up to fight. He is a really nice guy as well. Always has time to speak to people about boxing and his career, he's got some great stories.

 

That's awesome!

 

Tough guy that was a top five middleweight for a good number of years. He had really close fights with both Joppy and Arthur Abraham.

 

Also the rumour is Howard Eastman sparked out Steve Collins in sparring which derailed any comeback plans he had.

 

I used to really like him. Good fighter. I remember thinking he could have beat Joppy if he'd put his foot on the gas a little earlier.

 

Very good contender back in the day

Likely a champ if Hopkins wasn’t around

 

Always thought with his height and jab he'd have put up a better fight against Tito that Joppy did.

 

Good solid fighter, was top 5 at his peak, a tough night at the office for anyone, I recall he had a poor work rate which cost him on occasion.

 

I felt that was a fight that Eastman could have won but didn't think he did enough.
He had Joppy in trouble in the final round, but felt he was outworked a bit.
I think Eastman could have won it. It was probably a harder fight for Joppy than Eastman.
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I think Eastman was a very good MW
Very tough, durable

 

I used to rate him highly. Thought he was one of the better non titlists of the era.

In hindsight I’m not sure why. Maybe I was just trying to be different with getting on the ground floor of an obscure prospect.
Perhaps he was a slight disappointment, he certainly had his opportunities.

But if you are struggling with William Joppy, you probably weren’t destined for great things.

 

He was held back by his laid back temperament imo.