Howard Eastman challenged twice for middleweight world championships; the vacant WBA title in 2001; and the undisputed title against Bernard Hopkins in 2005.
20 Facts About Howard Eastman
2.
Howard Eastman turned professional in March 1994 with a first-round knockout of John Rice.
3.
Howard Eastman garnered a reputation as a heavy puncher in the gyms of the UK, where he regularly sparred with Super Middleweights, such as Chris Eubank.
4.
Howard Eastman's career progressed slowly and at a low profile for many years as fellow British boxers were reluctant to face him.
5.
Howard Eastman dominated the fight and dropped McCracken, stopping him in the 10th round.
6.
Howard Eastman narrowly lost a controversial majority decision despite knocking Joppy down in the final seconds of the twelfth round.
7.
Howard Eastman resurfaced in late 2002, under the Hennessy Sports promotional outfit, and trained by former opponent McCracken.
8.
Howard Eastman scored two knockouts, over Chardan Ansoula and Hussain Osman, respectively.
9.
Howard Eastman regained his European title in January 2003 against the French man Christophe Tendil, whom he stopped in five rounds with a broken jaw, and regained his British and Commonwealth titles by knocking out Scott Dann in three rounds.
10.
Howard Eastman 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.
11.
Howard Eastman was outsmarted and widely outpointed by Hopkins who was making his historic 20th defence.
12.
Howard Eastman travelled to Germany in July 2005 to fight a WBA eliminator against hard hitting Armenian Arthur Abraham, Howard Eastman lost the fight on points however claimed he had been robbed of the decision.
13.
In March 2006, Howard Eastman traveled to the US and took on another risky eliminator, this time for the IBF title.
14.
Howard Eastman was stopped on his feet by the undefeated Colombian-Puerto Rican Edison Miranda.
15.
Howard Eastman protested that he should have been allowed to continue since he had not been down in the fight.
16.
Howard Eastman was well ahead on all scorecards by the time the match ended.
17.
Howard Eastman was offered a final shot at contention, matched with John Duddy in Belfast.
18.
Howard Eastman has continued his career in his country of birth, Guyana.
19.
Howard Eastman 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.
20.
Howard Eastman ended this streak in August 2013, when he took a unanimous decision over Mark Austin over 8 rounds.