Boxing: Eastman ups tempo to stop Beardsley

Steve Bunce
Wednesday 05 March 2003 20:00 EST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

As expected the British, Commonwealth and European middleweight champion, Howard Eastman, easily stopped Harry Beardsley in front of a capacity crowd at York Hall, Bethnal Green last night.

Eastman and Beardsley operate at opposite ends of the boxing spectrum but a variety of reasons threw the pair of them together last night in a fight that was never going to be competitive.

Eastman, 32, boxed casually and coolly in the opening round but in round two he suddenly increased the tempo, accuracy and power of his punches and at 2min 27sec the referee, Ian John-Lewis, decided enough was enough.

"It was not an ideal fight but I had no option once opponents had pulled out," the promoter, Nick Hennessy, said. "I know that Howard is one of the best middleweights in the world and he wanted the fight and Beardsley was due to fight on the same bill so I just made it."

Eastman's next fight will be a triple title defence at the Nottingham Arena on 16 April against Portsmouth's Scott Dann. Also on the bill will be Beardsley against Matthew Thirlwall in a rematch of their close encounter from February when Beardsley won a tight decision.

Earlier, Eastman's younger brother, Gilbert, completed the first part of the family double with a 60-55 six-round light-middleweight victory over Warley's Howard Clarke.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in