By Emmerson Campbell
It will be youth versus experience tonight at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall when undefeated CABOFE welterweight champion Simeon ‘Candy Man’ Hardy matches gloves with former European middleweight champion Howard ‘Battersea Bomber’ Eastman.
Eastman’s and Hardy’s 10-round junior middleweight bout will headline the 23rd edition of the Guyana Boxing Board of Control (GBBC) Fight Night Pro Am card.
Last night at the Water Chris Hotel both fighters weighed in at 156 pounds.
Hardy, the 24-year-old crowd-pleasing knockout specialist has repeatedly signalled his intentions to defuse the ‘Battersea Bomber’ and yesterday at the customary pre-fight press conference at the National Communications Network (NCN) studios, where the final verbal jabs were thrown, Hardy reiterated those intentions.
“Eastman had his time, this is my time now, and hopefully tomorrow the chin checker comes early, I’m going to test his chin early and if he can’t take it it’s goodnight Eastman,” Hardy boasted.
The ‘chin check’ is Hardy’s patented punch which has disposed of seven of his eight opponents. In his first professional bout in October 2010, the ‘chin check’ collided with the chin of Patrick Boston just 20 seconds into the bout and made Hardy the proud owner of South America’s fastest knockout.
Hardy is so confident of a victory that he is sort of looking past Eastman as he even called out former world champions ‘Vicious’ Vivian Harris and Andrew ‘Sixhead’ Lewis. Hardy disclosed yesterday that Harris and Lewis are two fighters he would like to knock out to cement his place as the top boxer in Guyana.
Eastman, 42, who is a battle-tested warrior with a record of 46 wins and nine losses, with 36 of his wins by the knockout route, sat calmly and stated that he plans to do his talking in the ring.
Said Eastman: “I’m not the type to talk a lot, everybody knows what I am about, nobody beats me up, I’m no one’s punching bag, he made an excellent speech, that’s the type of thing I expect from a young fighter trying to make a name for himself, tomorrow night it’s not time to talk, it’s time to deliver, it’s warrior time,” Eastman stated.
Will Eastman fail the chin check test or will the ‘Candy Man’ suffer his first bitter defeat? The answer will be known tonight.
The professional undercard was initially scheduled to feature Trinidad and Tobago-based Guyanese Iwan ‘Pure Gold’ Azore and undefeated CABOFE junior welterweight champion, Barbadian Miguel ‘Hands of Stone’ Antoine matching gloves in a six-round junior welterweight contest but that was postponed.
Antoine sustained a cut on his knuckles and his substitute is now Troy Lewis.
Azore and Lewis fought twice before with the first bout ending in a draw while Azore got a decision victory in the last encounter. In the trilogy this is a catch-weight contest scheduled for six rounds.
Rudolph Fraser will face Cassius ‘Classy’ Matthews in a four-round lightweight encounter while James Walcott, a seasoned campaigner, will be up against young Kelsie George in a four-round grudge match. Walcott and George have thrown several verbal jabs at each other in the past and will have a chance to settle the score tonight.
Travis Fraser and Damien Ross will match gloves in the headline bout of the amateur segment of the card.
On the undercard, Shaka Moore of Essequibo Boxing Gym will take on Tyron Lashley of Rose Hall Jammers in an 85 to 89-pound bout. Another 85 to 89- pound encounter will pit Michael April from Tiger Eye Gym against Orin Bancroft of Harpy Eagles Gym.
The undercard will also feature Anton Branch of Harpy Eagles matching gloves with Five Star Gym product Matthew Hollingsworth (110 to 114 pounds). All bouts are scheduled for three rounds.
The monthly card is an initiative of the GBBC in collaboration with the Sports Ministry and the National Communications Network (NCN). Sponsors of the event include Digicel, Giftland Office Max, Courts, Banks DIH Limited and ANSA McAL.
Admission is $1,000, while children will be asked to pay half price. Bell time is 20:00 hrs.
