-says Herman Harris
– Anonymous fighter wants to take on winner should Frank opt out
Boxing promoter Herman Harris, who is the father of former world champion and junior welterweight campaigner Vivian Harris, has predicted Howard ‘Battersea Bomber’ Eastman as the winner of the bout against former World Boxing Association welterweight champion Andrew `Sixhead’ Lewis when the two meet tomorrow night at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence.
“Eastman will come out victorious over Lewis. There are lots of reasons why I say so, but one of the most important ones that weigh heavily in his favour to my mind, is that he is a full-fledged middleweight and coming down to the end, he will be the stronger of the two,” Harris said in an invited comment.
Harris also feels that Lewis is not as active as Eastman and should find it hard to get past his opponent who last fought three months ago and was victorious over an opponent Lewis took three fights to defeat – Denny Dalton.
“Even though Lewis may be saying that he is fit and ready to fight, his inactiveness in the ring is definitely going to work against him, especially later down in the fight. And even though Eastman last fought three months ago, it is still an advantage that is weighing heavily in his favour.”
- Herman Harris and Howard Eastman
Prediction
While he is willing to wager all his money on Eastman to come out victorious over Lewis, Harris stated that predicting the style of victory would be very difficult for him, even though he knows that Eastman will win.
“It is difficult to predict how he (Eastman) will win, but I know he will. When you look at the Eastman/Dalton bout, you would see that Eastman did enough to curb Dalton whose robust style of fighting was a problem for both Lewis and Eastman.”
He continued, “With Lewis, Eastman would be able to display his ability as Lewis’ style of fighting would make it far easier for Eastman to do so and I am willing to put my money on Eastman, with all due respect to Lewis.”
According to promoter and head of Mc Neal Enterprise Odinga Lumumba, the winner of the Eastman/Lewis bout is guaranteed a match with overseas-based Guyanese Raul Frank who will be matching gloves against Winston Pompey on the undercard, but Harris told Stabroek Sport that an anonymous pugilist is willing to take on the winner should Frank opt out for unknown reasons. “We all know, no disrespect to him, that Raul Frank has opted out of many a fights here in Guyana and should he back out from taking on the winner of the Eastman/Lewis encounter, there is a fighter who wishes to remain anonymous, willing to step up and take his place.”
Harris also took the opportunity to reflect on the sport of boxing especially in the professional category and called on the Guyana Boxing Board of Control (GBBC) to get up off their laurels, do some restructuring to the benefit of the boxers out there, especially in the amateur ranks. “Professional boxing has fallen by the wayside. Gone are the days of the Anthony Andrews’, Michael Benjamins, Darius Fords, Vibert Cambridges, Raul Franks and Jeff Roberts’ just to name a few, when you can look at a fighter and say that he is ready to step up to the top. “In the years gone by, business entities and other persons would come forward and offer sponsorship to some young amateur fighter. But such is not happening now and the GBBC, whilst they are working together with the promoters out there to keep the sport of boxing alive, needs to do more,” said Harris. He added, “Even though the GBBC has been promoting cards that’s all it has been doing in recent times and the promotion of cards is not talent spotting. In fact on some of the cards, we see a recycling of boxers and this means that the GBBC has to do some talent spotting especially in the amateur ranks, which is a pre-requisite for the professional ranks.
“They are not designed to promote boxing but control same. But due to the fact that promoters are not coming forward, the GBBC had a meeting with same in the interest of promoting bouts for the development of the sport. But they need to go around to the gyms and do some talent spotting, as they are many more Michael Benjamins, Raul Franks and Darius Fords out there waiting to be discovered.”
