By Michael Amakor
On February 19, 2004, Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins the undisputed unified WBC, IBF, WBA and WBO Middleweight Champion of the World defends his titles against the current European Union Middleweight Champion “The Battersea Bomber” Howard Eastman at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
The Executioner first made a fan of me with his brutal bone crunching stoppage of “The Sledgehammer” Joe Lipsky in the 4th round back in 1996, His ring entrance, costume and huge bodyguards behind him carrying his battle axes along with his hard core eloquence was truly menacing to watch, you knew he was the real deal and could fight.
Since then he has gone on to crush challenges to his supremacy and reign from William Joppy, Antwun Echols twice, Felix Trinidad and current Light Heavyweight King Glen Johnson, he also just came off a superb performance over ring legend “The Golden Boy” Oscar De la Hoya whom he schooled in the finer aspects of the sweat science before finally finishing him off with a single well timed body shot in the ninth round of their encounter in September of 2004, Along with finally satisfying boxing skeptics with his performance he also annexed the WBO Middleweight title in the process to become the Unified and Undisputed Middleweight Champion of the World.
The white goateed Battersea bomber is rated number five in the world by boxrec and fightkings.com, but is virtually unknown in the United States since he has mostly restricted his campaigns within the United Kingdom. He has a motley collection of journey men on his resume but battled former champion William “El Torreille” Joppy for the vacant WBA Middleweight title (due to the declaration of Bernard Hopkins as the Super Champion) and despite a brave effort where he had him down in the last round lost a close decision. He also has a ninth round TKO win over fast fading French Middleweight and former WBA Middleweight Champion Hassine Cheriffi.
In analyzing this fight you would note that both fighters shared a common opponent and went the full twelve rounds with William Joppy, but that is where the comparison ended because while Eastman engaged in a give and take ding dong affair with Joppy, Hopkins was disinclined to engage in such antics and dished out a pounding so brutal; Joppy was left an almost unrecognizable grotesque lumpy contorted mess after twelve rounds of action.
But Eastman has a huge advantage in this fight as he is six years younger than Hopkins whose boxing skills are first rate but who is now on the north side of 40 years old. Based on the stare down between the two fighters a couple of days ago Eastman seems determined to ensure that Hopkins gets old in the ring.
Hopkins on the other hand may be out to prove to the boxing world that age is but a number and I saw him grin back confidently at Eastman no doubt planning how to break Eastman’s jaw to clear the path towards a million dollar showdown with old foe Felix Tito Trinidad,
May the best man win.
As in September, I once again ran out of gas in the 10th & 11th championship rounds of October & November with this column, but I recovered to complete them and will unleash a few more flurries to close out the 12th and final round.
In the first week of October, Hassan N’Dam won a UD over Curtis Stevens in an eliminator for the right to challenge Jermaine Taylor who defeated aging Sam Soliman to regain the IBF Middleweight title. How Taylor even earned this title shot is another story altogether, but it is all irrelevant as he is now the champion. However he will not have too much time to savor his victory as he has assault and battery charges pending against him and an upcoming court fight that may turn out to be the toughest fight of his life, just when things started to look up for him in boxing, we wish him luck.
