Eastman Has Plenty of Punch Lines

Howard Eastman is known as “a bit of a fruitcake,” according to the London Telegraph. Harsh, but understandable considering Eastman, a British middleweight with roots in Guyana, a small South American country:

* Dyed his beard blond for four fights, providing an eerie, almost haunting contrast to his dark features.

* Spent the formative years of his boxing career sleeping on junk heaps and in empty subway cars.

* Predicts he will knock out Bernard Hopkins on Saturday night in the fifth round of their World Boxing Council title fight in Staples Center because that’s what God told him.

But a chat with Eastman reveals that this supposed fruitcake is really not so half-baked after all.

The dye job was “a publicity stunt,” he said. Not hard to see where Eastman got the idea considering he once fought for promoter Don King, who has made bad hair days a trademark.

So why did Eastman, 34, go back to his natural color?

“My wife, Nicole, didn’t like it. I fear no man, but my wife would have beaten me up,” he said with a smile.

Eastman’s homeless days came after his father, Arnold, brought him and his brothers, Nigel and Gilbert, from their native New Amsterdam, Guyana, to Battersea, an area of London. Eastman was 15, the age when peers often take precedence over family.

“I started misbehaving,” Eastman said. “In Guyana, kids had to listen to their parents and not speak back. The kids around my new home didn’t show their parents the proper respect, and I picked up those habits.”

Eastman’s father wasn’t about to accept the new attitude. When Eastman failed to heed parental warnings, he found himself in the street, sleeping wherever.

But what could have been a disastrous road became the path to success. Eastman got a job at a go-kart racetrack and spent his leisure time in the ring, honing his skills in a sport that has fascinated him since he used his fists at age 6 to handle a school bully.

By 18, Eastman, piling up trophies and praise as an amateur, was reunited with his family.

“Living like that was a hardship that prepared me to cope with anything I would face in the ring,” he said.

Turning professional in 1994, Eastman won his first 32 bouts, along with the British, Commonwealth and European middleweight titles, before facing William Joppy in Las Vegas in November 2001 for the vacant World Boxing Assn. middleweight title. Despite knocking down Joppy, Eastman lost on a majority decision.

That decision still eats at him. Although he won’t say that King, his promoter, had told him the fix was in, Eastman comes close.

“I played with Joppy every single round and that’s a fact,” Eastman said. “A lot of things happen behind the scenes that people don’t know about. But I was led to believe that I’m the favorite, we’re promoted by the same person, just go out there and put on a show. And that’s what I did.”

King was unavailable for comment.

The loss crushed Eastman’s spirit so badly, he didn’t fight for 11 months. Now, with eight consecutive victories after the Joppy loss, Eastman is taking on the undisputed middleweight champion, a man who hasn’t lost since Roy Jones beat him in 1993.

Why does Eastman believe in divine intervention?

It stems from a motorcycle accident several months ago.

“I misjudged a turn, flipped over the handlebars and landed unconscious in a rubbish heap,” Eastman said. “Nine times out of 10, the person would have been dead. I had nothing worse than a bad cut on my knee. God has kept me alive for a reason.”