BoxRec

MIDDLEWEIGHT (160-72.575)
CHAMPION: BERNARD HOPKINS (US)
Won Title: April 14, 2001
Last Defence: September 18, 2004
Last Compulsory: March 29, 2003
WBA Champion: Maselino Masoe (New Zealand)
IBF Champion: Bernard Hopkins (US)
WBO Champion: Bernard Hopkins (US)
Contenders:
WBC International Champion: James Obedi Toney (Ghana)
1. Felix Trinidad (P.Rico) NABC
2. Howard Eastman (GB) EBU
3. Jermain Taylor (US) AMERICA
4. Felix Sturm (Germany)
5. Kingsley Ikeke (Nigeria) NABF
6. Sam Soliman (Australia)
7. Epifanio Mendoza (Colombia) LATINO
8. Quentin Smith (US)
9. Mariano Carrera (Argentina)
10. Kelly Pavlik (US)
11. Aaron Mitchell (US)
12. Robert Allen (US)
13. Fernando Vargas (US)
14. Jorge Sendra (Spain)
15. James Obedi Toney (Ghana) INTL
16. Ian Gardner (US) AMBH
17. Bert Schenk (Germany)
18. Khoren Gevorgyan (Armenia)
19. Leonard Pierre Anastan (Haiti) CABOFE
20. Daniel Edouard (Haiti)
21. Raymond Joval (Holland)
22. Kuvanych Toygonbayev (Uzbekistan)
23. Tarvis Simms (US)
24. Sergey Tatevosyan (Russia)
25. Yoshihiro Araki (Japan)
26. Francisco Mora (Argentina)
27. Randy Griffin (GB)
28. Morrade Hakkar (France)
29. Chad Dawson (US) YOUTH
30. Troy Rowland (US)
31. Peter Manfredo (US)
32. Lorenzo Di Giacomo (Italy)
33. Willie Gibbs (US)
34. Jesse Brinkley (US)
35. Gary Lockett (GB)
36. Alexey Chirkov (Russia)
37. Satoru Suzuki (Japan)
38. Anthony Bonsante (US)
39. Marcos S. Diaz (Argentina)
40. Max Heyman (US)

Trinidad no 1 after being out for 2 years and beating a Welterweight.

The WBC are bent as a nine bob note.

Eastmans's career is going nowhere under Hennessy.

Get out Howard, while you have time.

THAT is wrong. Just wrong

Howard should shoulder a lot of the blame for his career as well as Hennessey.

Waste of career Eastman is going nowhere!!!!

Absolutely Disgraceful
Eastman has been #1 for ages!

I guess we can take it that Hopkins will fight Trinidad in one of his next two fights

In truth it always seemed unlikely Hopkins would fight Eastman .
Lets face it , Howard blew his big chance against Joppy and a guy like him is always going to only get one chance . He's not a Bruno who could chance after chance on the basis of him selling tickets .
Incidentally , who is Randy Griffin ?

He's American

I think this was inevitable, Eastman's inactivity has cost him badly. I thought it unlikely that he'd fight Hopkins, but if he'd have capitalised on the fight against Joppy, and tried to get in with some "names", it could have been him instead of Allen in Hopkin's fight before DLH. As it stands now, the chance looks to have gone. Sad, but ultimately his own fault.

rubberjohnny wrote: Would this have happened to a Warren or King fighter?

No, but only because Frank's boys only fight for low rent WBU and WBO titles.
Apart from Danny ( maybe ) and that's only cause he's looking to cash in his chips quicktime.

rubberjohnny wrote:In activity????

Two years out on the piss in Puerto Rico and returning to fight a Welter and that gets you number one?

Eastman's been buzzing compared to Trinidad.

That may be so, but he must have had a feeling that this may happen. So why didn't he have more fights against better opposition after the Joppy fight? If he'd have done so then Trinidad wouldn't have been able to move above him like this. So yes, his inactivity has cost him, more than any other factor.

rubberjohnny wrote:I hate to say I told you so!!!!

Seems Hennessey Phuked it up at the convention in Thailand and Eastman has already walked to Fight Academy.

Spot on. Guaranteed.

Yep looks that way, I guess we should have all seen that one coming, I mean, why on earth would they sanction Eastman v Hop, when there is much more money to be had in this bout.

Eastman's only hope would have been to fight some top notch American opposition to raise his profile to make a case for that fight, even then he would have had to go some to get there before Oscar in any case. I think Howard's only chance now is that one of the sanctioning bodies strips Nard, (unlikely) Tito wins and decides to give him a break, to go on a mission and whup some American fighters, or move up in weight.

Jose Sulaiman, what a tosser!

Rocky should of done us a favour and got rid of the WBC.

rubberjohnny wrote:Perhaps when Hopkins fights Tito again this will be for the low rent WBO title as well.

Bruno, Benn, Eubank, Hodkinson, Hamed, Cowdell, Colin Jones, Marsh, Espana, Piper, Collins, Reid, Nelson, Woodhall, Catley, Barrerra, Ingle, Freitas, Scott.

All Frank's boy's who have fought for WBC/IBF and WBC titles. Not many low renters among them are they. If the fighetrs are good enoigh bWarren get's the shot.

Can the same be said of Hennessey after today's anouncement regarding his ONLY world class fighter.

Where's Magri then?

All before Frank got in bed with the WBU though ( two timing his long suffering mistress the WBO ) doesn't happend any more does it?

So by your logic, Hatton isn't good enough for a major title then? He's been ready for two years and we've seen fornicate all progress.

I believe in the important role of the WBC in professional boxing, which needs a balance to try to keep all participants at a level of fairness, opportunities and concern to preserve boxing as a great sport of honor and dignity, as well as our attempt to avoid chaos and anarchy, which would easily kill boxing in 25-50 years by bringing it down to a mere spectacle for the exploitation of the wealthy

Jose Sulaiman, WBC website

It's proof there isn't a god in my book.

If there were, Jose would have been struck by lightning for writing those words.

Like others have said this is somewhat unfair on Eastman.

Eastman may be better off trying to get a shot at Calzaghe or Reid at 168lbs. I think he could give both a very tough fight, Eastman has said in the past that he would fight at Super-Middle if the money was right.

He may have no choice now, didn't he fight at SM early in his career?

jamesmcdonnell wrote:He may have no choice now, didn't he fight at SM early in his career?

I'm sure he did, a couple of times.

Coconut wrote:

I believe in the important role of the WBC in professional boxing, which needs a balance to try to keep all participants at a level of fairness, opportunities and concern to preserve boxing as a great sport of honor and dignity, as well as our attempt to avoid chaos and anarchy, which would easily kill boxing in 25-50 years by bringing it down to a mere spectacle for the exploitation of the wealthy

Jose Sulaiman, WBC website

Did Peter Kay wright that for him?

rubberjohnny wrote:Hatton has just won a final Eliminator - answer is he's done it the hard way. The champions have all turned him down forcing Warrne tio go the mandatory route. Forgot about Magri, nice to see you're keeping check!

Didn't Eastman turn down fights with Calzaghe, Reid and Harry Simon?

Bet he is pissed off now!

Didn't Hatton give up his mandatory postition instead of fighting Harris for the title?

Yes, but is Tszyu likely to defend his title agaisnt Hatton, he already openly stated that he wasn't interested in fighting Hatton, unless something has happened to change his mind, what are the chances of Hatton actually getting to fight him. Of course, I guess there is a chance the IBF will strip him for failing to defend against #1 contender. Tszyu has possible fights against the winner of Gatti/Mayweather, Cotto, has Mitchell next who he may lose to, who negotiations broke down against.

This isn't the first time Hatton has been mandatory after all. Saying he has done it the hard way is stretching it a bit. Whilst Harris definetly priced himself out of the fight, It would have been interesting to see the fight go to purse bids, and see what Harris' reaction would have been then. I don't think he fancied his chances against Hatton to be honest, but he's fighting for a lot less than he was offered now. Mike Stewart was not as tough a test as Tackie, and hardly the most threatening final eliminator going.

[quote="rubberjohnny"]Hatton has just won a final Eliminator - answer is he's done it the hard way. The champions have all turned him down forcing Warrne tio go the mandatory route.quote]

you keep telling yourself that mate

rubberjohnny wrote:Hatton has just won a final Eliminator - answer is he's done it the hard way. The champions have all turned him down

Not true, he was WBO No #1 and took a rain check on a shot against Chop Chop whatsisname. The WBO dropped Hatton for that reason I think - then chucked him back in there for reasons best not stated here.

And what exactly are fight academy going to do for eastman? All the top middles are in the states he needs someone with a bit of clout over there if he wants to get anywhere. Look out for Eastman v Dann soon....!!