Former world boxing contender 37-year-old Howard “The Battersea Bomber” Eastman utilized his vast ring experience to wrestle the national middleweight title from `Deadly’ Denny Dalton by a majority decision in the main bout of the “Judgment Day” professional card held at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall Saturday night.
Eastman, a former European champion who up to last year fought out of the United Kingdom dictated the pace of the fight against Dalton who is well known for his aggressive approach.
The newly-crowned champion launched a heavy attack on Dalton’s body during the first four rounds and then launched a two fisted attack in the fifth but Dalton, who displayed superior fitness levels, took the punches well and then had Eastman backing up in the middle rounds.
Dalton’s best assault best assault came in the 10th round when he had Eastman wobbling from several solid and effective punches to the head that almost floored Eastman, but the former world contender survived although he looked almost a beaten man at the end of the round.
However, in the 11th round Eastman started with renewed energy and caught Dalton with a right hook and followed up with a flurry of punches that had Dalton, the current champion of the World Boxing Empire welterweight title, dazed for a while but he too withstood the pressure and survived the round.
With Dalton feeling the effect of the early body blows he went into retreat in the final round and Eastman piled on the pressure as the large crowd of the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall erupted with chants of “Eastman”, “Eastman”, but Dalton held on and in the end both fighters raised their arms in triumph to a resounding applause from fans.
Judge Andrew Thorne scored the fight as a tie 114-114 while Bernard de Santos and Lionel Sullivan each scored the bout 116-114 in favour of Eastman.
Eastman came in as a late replacement for the United States-based Raul Frank who was originally billed to fight Dalton but pulled out due to a back injury.
Eastman, who hails from Berbice and who was fighting his first bout in Guyana, pushed his record to 43 wins (35 by knockout) with six losses in 49 fights.
Dalton, on his way to losing the national middleweight title now has a record of 16 wins, eight losses with 11 knockouts and one draw in 25 fights.
In the main supporting bout, Pamela London, the former WIBC heavyweight champion scored a majority decision over WBA number six ranked Veronica Blackman to win the women’s national heavyweight title in a decision that received mixed reaction.
London, a crowd favourite found a worthy opponent in Blackman who took all of London’s best punches and responded with crisp combinations of her own.
Blackman used her jabs effectively and doubled up with left and right combinations while London was content to land big punches.
However, after eight rounds of packed action, London was given the judges nod and now holds the national title as well as the WIBC International Heavyweight title.
Trinidad-based Guyanese Joel McRae scored a split decision over Michael De Mattos in another scorcher in their six-round middleweight contest.
McRae could have been given the judges nod after sending De Mattos to the canvas in the third round for an eight-count.
Both fighters showed aggression through the contest but McRae’s punches were on target most of the time.
Shelly “The Boom” Gibson who weighed in at 266 lbs got more than she bargained for against Trinidadian-based Guyanese Andrea “The Rock” Duncan who weighed 204 lbs.
Duncan won the fight by a split decision in a fight that brought the crowd to its feet on occasions.
The catch-weigh contest between Carlton “The Fighting Raja” Skeete and Cecil Smith over four rounds also provided much entertainment for the fans with Smith coming out the eventual winner by a majority decision.
The card was organized by the Guyana Boxing Board of Control in their continuing effort to promote professional boxing in Guyana.
