By Emmerson Campbell
The water from the fountain of youth, washed away the vast experience of Howard `Battersea Bomber’ Eastman as Edmond DeClou dethroned Eastman ending the former’s reign as the king of the local middleweight division Saturday night at the Banks DIH Thirst Park ground.
DeClou, 24 captured the 40-year-old Eastman’s middleweight title by a majority decision Saturday night in the main event of the Guyana Boxing Board of Control (GBBC) action packed six -fight card dubbed ‘Thirst Park Explosion’.
Eastman, a Berbician who lived in England for a number of years, is a former European champion.
He also fought former world champions, William Joppy and Bernard Hopkins, and as the more battle tested boxer, was the odds on favourite to win the bout and retain his title.
However, the young pugilist from the mining town of Linden, had plans on remaining unbeaten in his sixth fight for the year and did enough to dethrone Eastman.
The first round was a ‘feeling out’ round as both fighters tried to establish flaws in each others other’s technique ,DeClou would land the some stiff jabs as he used his superior reach to keep Eastman at bay.
Round two saw both fighters stepping up the pace a notch with the ‘Battersea Bomber’ and DeClou landing blows of their own.
Eastman grew in confidence and turned the heat on, landing right hands and combinations to the body of DeClou. Before the start of round four, Lennox Daniels, DeClou’s trainer, used some ‘colourful’ words to wake up the Linden Warrior who seemed to be sleep walking in round three. The pep talk must have worked as DeClou asserted himself and went back to his jab and combinations clearly winning round four.
In round five, both fighters went toe-to-toe in the middle of the ring with Eastman landing hard right hands while DeClou landed combinations of his own.
Round six was an even round as both fighters landed telling blows to the head and body of their opponent.
Rounds seven and eight saw DeClou outworking Eastman landing his jab and occasional combinations and opening up a lead on the scorecards.
Eastman came out for round nine looking fatigued, blowing heavily and fighting with his mouth guard half way out of his mouth while DeClou bounced around the ring landing his jab and occasional right hand. DeClou would continue to apply pressure in the 10th round jabbing and moving using his superior footwork to elude Eastman’s right hand heaves.
DeClou seemed to take the penultimate round off while the Berbician, who needed a knockout to win the fight, upped the ante and took round 11.
Except for a few combinations by DeClou, the final round was pretty much uneventful as the two tired pugilists hit and held each other. After 12 rounds of boxing in front of a fair sized crowd the decision went to the scorecards.
Judges Clairmont Desouza and Francis Abraham both scored the bout 117 to 111 in favour of DeClou while judge Carlton Hopkinson scored the bout a draw 114 to 114.
In a post fight interview, the new champ declared he will train harder to take himself to the next level and said he was ready to take on all challengers. DeClou added that if Eastman needs a rematch he will be more than willing to grant him one.
Eastman record now reads 46 wins with nine losses while DeClou improved his record to his eight fights two losses and a draw.
In the main supporting bout the older Gwendolyn ‘Stealth Bomber’ Bomber O’Neil retained her Women’s International Boxing Association (WIBA) world heavyweight title by a split decision defeating the younger Pauline London in their 10 -round encounter.
O’Neil, 42, Guyana’s first female world champion used the bout as warm up for her tougher upcoming Boxing Day fight.
O’Neil will be facing Nigerian Ijeoma Egbunine, the World number one female heavyweight boxer for the World Boxing Council (WBC) female heavyweight title in Nigeria on December 26
London, 36, nonetheless, gave a good account of herself in the early rounds, landing some hard telegraphed right hands to the head and body of O’Neil as the two women stood toe-to-toe and traded bombs.
The ‘Stealth Bomber’ was the more aggressive boxer throughout the fight as London cemented herself in her corner for the entire bout.
O’Neil landed several head-snapping combinations of her own to the forehead and chin of London. O’Neil’ dominated rounds three through 10 as her superior stamina and skill was simply too much for London.
The loss to O’Neil meant that both of the London sisters Pamela and Pauline have been unable to defeat the ‘Stealth Bomber’.
Pamela lost to O’Neil in July 2005 then in November last year, both on points.
O’Neil, improved her record to 18 wins, seven losses and a draw. London’s abysmal record drops to four wins and nine losses.
Simeon ‘Candy Man’ Hardy improved his record to six wins with five of them by KO and continued his climb to the top of the boxing ranks by making a name for himself with his signature ‘chin checker’ punch.
The knockout specialist stopped St Vincent born; Barbados-based Julian ‘Thunder’ Tannis in one minute 40 seconds of round two in their junior middleweight fight. The Barbadian import of the Hardy camp finally failed the chin check test as he was decked twice before by the vicious left hand of the ‘Candy Man’.
In a post fight interview Hardy said he will now be focusing on his first international fight at the Princess International Hotel at Providence in December on the under card of Andrew ‘Sixhead’ Lewis/ Hector Camacho Jr. fight against American Julian ‘Vicious’ Kennedy. The ‘Candy Man’ said the exposure would enable the world to know that Guyana has a young ‘hungry ‘exciting boxer with heavy hands.
Guyana’s welterweight champion Iwan ‘Pure Gold’ Azore used his superior speed and skill to earn a split decision over Troy Lewis in their eight round catchweight bout. The Trinidad-based southpaw Azore constantly used the left uppercut as a weapon during the fight. Lewis, who seemed tired from as early of round four, effectively caught Azore with body punches, but fatigue allowing the better conditioned Azore to land at will.
In rounds seven and eight, Azore caught Lewis with a series of head snapping left hands and uppercuts sending the tired Lewis to the ropes while Lewis held Azore in an effort to recover.
Lewis’s record drops to four wins, 13 losses and one draw while Azore improved to 14 wins, three losses and three draws.
After the fight Azore sent a strong message to Hardy, mentioning to Stabroek Sport that Hardy needs to put up or shut up. ‘Pure Gold’ said that the Hardy camp has been doing a lot of talking and if they need him he is ready to 10 or 12 rounds any time anywhere with the ‘Candy Man’.
Of the six fights on the ‘Thirst Park Explosion’ card, one of the better fights had to be between welterweights Mark Austin and Jermaine King.
King and Austin went at each other from the first bell with both fighters landing hard shots to their opponent. King, the taller of the two fighters, landed several jabs and combinations to Austin while Austin fought on the inside landing several body shot to King’s abdomen. Throughout the fight both boxers stood toe-to-toe and brawled with each other.
Austin, who was adjudged the winner of the eight round contest via a split decision, says he has intentions of avenging his losses to Revlon Lake and Miguel Antoine but he first wants to take on Clive ‘Wonder Kid’ Atwell or Ray Sandiford.
King said that he was unhappy with the decision and has plans to take a break from the sport as he is baffled to know what he has to do to register a victory in his five-fight professional career. King record now reads four losses and one draw while Austin’s record now stands at six wins, two losses and one draw.
Orlan ‘Pocket Rocket’ Rogers put up a good show in his four round catch versus Atwell. The Dominica based Atwell who had to lose 17 pounds in two weeks to match gloves with ‘Pocket Rocket’ still won by a unanimous verdict overwhelming the shorter and lighter Rogers. The journeyman Rogers now has a record of four wins and 12 losses while the ‘Wonder Kid’s record reads four wins and a draw.
The event was sponsored by Digicel, Giftland Office Max, Courts, Banks DIH Limited, Guyoil, NCN and Ansa McCal.
Two lucky gentlemen with the ticket number 199 and 799 won a ticket each to the twin island republic of Trinidad and Tobago.
