20.02.05 – Howard Eastman is hoping that Bernard Hopkins will honour his commitment to a rematch of their closely fought battle for the undisputed world middleweight Championship at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles on Saturday night. Pound for pound king Hopkins told Eastman’s promoter Mick Hennessy that Eastman deserved a second showdown following his outstanding effort. For the Londoner, it can’t come soon enough..
“I would like to thank Bernard Hopkins for this opportunity,” Eastman said. “I hope he will give me another one. He doesn’t have to move up light heavyweight just yet to fight Glencoffe Johnson. There is plenty of business left at middleweight. And we don’t need to be bringing in any other guys either. Jermain Taylor for instance isn’t the calibre of fighter Bernard Hopkins is. No disrespect, I would love to fight him as well, but I want Bernard Hopkins.
“Lets do it one more time; then I will even the score. Then we can do it a third time. After that we can look at the other guys.”
So why does Eastman believe things will be different the second time around?
“I will fight 12 hard rounds toe to toe,” he explains.
“I couldn’t stick to my game plan tonight. I wanted to get inside and work close, but every time I got near Hopkins the referee called for a break.
“I was fighting two guys in there. The referee kept interrupting what two fighters have got to do.
“Like I say, next time round I will work on going 12 rounds toe to toe. Not that it will go the distance.”
By going to war Eastman will hope that he can deny Hopkins the chance to get on his bike again.
He added: “He ran for the whole fight; it was his strategy; he knew he had to get away from me.
“I don’t blame him for fighting that sort of fight; he did what he had to do. He was doing his job.
“But I just think that a champion should box like a champion. He should come to fight like I did, not run. I came to his backyard and I was the aggressor the whole time in there.
“It takes two guys to fight.”