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Barney Eastwood was Mr. Boxing in Belfast
Tributes are pouring in for Barney Eastwood, the former bookmaker who built a boxing dynasty in Belfast during the height of the Troubles, the conflict between Protestants and Catholics that plagued Northern Ireland for more than three decades. Eastwood guided the careers of five fighters who became world champions, most notably Barry McGuigan, a national hero, revered by both factions. Eastwood, who would have turned 88 later this month, died peacefully in his hospital bed on Monday, March 9.
Eastwood left school at age 15, married at age 19, and was in his early 20’s when he purchased an ale house in Carrickfergus, near Belfast, with a small inheritance from his mother.
The town had only one betting shop and the proprietor kept banking hours. Those with winning wagers usually had to wait until the next day to collect their winnings.
Eastwood would redeem winning tickets from his regular customers, saving them the inconvenience of returning to the betting shop the next day. Soon he started booking their action there in the pub which frequently got him in trouble with the authorities as he was operating without a license.
He eventually got a license and built a chain of betting shops which grew into the largest chain in Northern Ireland, 54 at the peak, which he sold to British bookmaking behemoth Ladbrokes in 2008. With the money he started a new career as a real estate developer.
A good Gaelic Football player in his teens, Eastwood fell in love with sports at an early age. There was a U.S. Army base on the outskirts of his hometown of Cookstown and the soldiers held tournaments and occasionally put on exhibitions for local schoolchildren. Eastwood was fascinated and although he never competed in the squared circle beyond a few amateur fights, boxing would become his passion.
In Belfast, Eastwood began promoting club fights at venerable Ulster Hall. Although the city was torn apart by sectarian strife, things were copacetic inside the arena. “There was never any trouble,” reminisced Eastwood in a conversation with Geoffrey Beattie of the London Guardian. “The Belfast crowd are very, very hard; they’re boxing fanatics and they’re tough, but they’ll acclaim a good fighter regardless of religion.”
In time he opened a boxing gym above one of his betting shops, a gym that became well-known throughout the global boxing community. Eastwood didn’t skimp when it came to hiring sparring partners. Venezuelan welterweight Crisanto Espana and Panamanian super middleweight Victor Cordoba came there to spar, took up residence in the city, and became world title-holders under Eastwood’s management. His other world champions, other than McGuigan, were featherweight Paul Hodkinson and flyweight Dave McCauley. But he never could get over the hump with super middleweight Ray Close, who twice came close to upending Chris Eubank in world title fights, or with Herol “Bomber” Graham, arguably his most talented fighter. During his association with Eastwood, Graham came up short in two stabs at the middleweight title, losing to future Hall of Famers Mike McCallum and Julian Jackson.
Barry McGuigan’s defeat of long-reigning featherweight champion Eusebio Pedroza will likely always remain the most glorious day in the history of boxing in Ireland. At the conclusion of the match, held at a soccer stadium in London, there were spontaneous celebrations. “From Dublin to Belfast,” said an Associated Press story, “thousands of fans took to the streets, chanting, singing, carrying banners and parading to the sound of honking car horns.”
McGuigan made two successful defenses on Irish soil before heading off to the United States for a match with Argentina’s Fernando Sosa at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. To acclimate himself to the desert heat, McGuigan trained in Palm Springs.
The match fell out when Sosa broke a finger in training. Rather than postpone the match until Sosa’s injury was healed, Eastwood consented to let Stevie Cruz fill the breach. A plumber’s assistant from Fort Worth, Texas, Cruz seemingly posed no threat.
McGuigan vs. Cruz was held on June 23, 1986. One of three featured bouts, the match started early as a concession to British television. The temperature at ringside was 109 degrees. It was a 15-round fight and McGuigan fell apart in the homestretch, losing a close but unanimous decision in what would be named The Ring magazine Fight of the Year.
The Eastwood-McGuigan partnership dissolved shortly thereafter and it was a very acrimonious divorce. Eastwood claimed that he first noticed McGuigan in a three-round amateur fight that he lost. ‘We built him up out of nothing,” he said. “I found him in a little village working for his mother in a grocer’s shop and earned him more money than any fighter in the history of British boxing.” But McGuigan, who bolted Eastwood for Frank Warren, claimed that he didn’t get all the money owed him and took Eastwood to court to invalidate his contract.
Eastwood lost this battle, it cost him a bundle, but he won the rematch. Years later, McGuigan would claim that Eastwood concealed pre-fight injuries to let the fight with Stevie Cruz go forward. Eastwood sued him for slander and won a substantial settlement.
Eastwood also won a judgment against fellow promoter Mickey Duff, an occasional collaborator but more often a rival. In his 2010 autobiography, Duff, who died in 2014, claimed that Eastwood paid him $100,000 to get McGuigan to drop his lawsuit which was settled out of court. Eastwood sued Mickey Duff for slander and was awarded damages. (Compared to the United States, the courts in the U.K. tend to be far more generous toward plaintiffs in cases involving defamation of character. The entertainer Liberace sued the British tabloid Daily Mirror over a 1956 article that intimated that he was gay and won a handsome sum.)
Although he was a hard negotiator, Barney Eastwood had more in common with old-time fight managers like Tom O’Rourke and Doc Kearns than with contemporaries like Bob Arum and Don King. Eastwood was hands-on, a manager/promoter who was also frequently a cornerman.
In the corner he was a great motivator. “Barney…made you believe that you could do things that others thought you had no chance of doing,” the aforementioned Dave McCauley told David Kelly of the Belfast Telegraph. “I would have never become world champion without him.”
“To be a bookie,” Eastwood once said, “you have to have a lot of nerve. Everybody has this idea that the bookie always wins. That’s nonsense.”
Boxing was a reflection of Eastwood’s risk-taking personality as were horseracing and greyhound racing, the other sports in which he was seriously involved. And not all of his real estate investments panned out. In 2012, some of his holdings were repossessed by the bank.
“The boxing world is not for the faint-hearted,” wrote David Kelly in his memoriam. “(Eastwood) had the financial clout, the pugilistic knowledge and cunning to make sure his fighters had an edge.” To this we would add that a close look at the resume of Eastwood’s top fighters, including domestic champions like Hugh Russell, a Lonsdale Belt winner, inform us that virtually all of them left the sport after a relatively short run. Whatever his faults, it redounds to Barney Eastwood’s credit that he never milked a fighter with a marketable name for more money once the fighter’s skills had frayed.
Eastwood is survived by his wife of 68 years, six children, 23 grandchildren, and 14 great-grandchildren. We here at The Sweet Science send our condolences to his loved ones.
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Usyk Outpoints Fury and Itauma has the “Wow Factor” in Riyadh
Usyk Outpoints Fury and Itauma has the “Wow Factor” in Riyadh
Oleksandr Usyk left no doubt that he is the best heavyweight of his generation and one of the greatest boxers of all time with a unanimous decision over Tyson Fury tonight at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. But although the Ukrainian won eight rounds on all three scorecards, this was no runaway. To pirate a line from one of the DAZN talking heads, Fury had his moments in every round but Usyk had more moments.
The early rounds were fought at a faster pace than the first meeting back in May. At the mid-point, the fight was even. The next three rounds – the next five to some observers – were all Usyk who threw more punches and landed the cleaner shots.
Fury won the final round in the eyes of this reporter scoring at home, but by then he needed a knockout to pull the match out of the fire.
The last round was an outstanding climax to an entertaining chess match during which both fighters took turns being the pursuer and the pursued.
An Olympic gold medalist and a unified world champion at cruiserweight and heavyweight, the amazing Usyk improved his ledger to 23-0 (14). His next fight, more than likely, will come against the winner of the Feb. 22 match in Ridayh between Daniel Dubois and Joseph Parker which will share the bill with the rematch between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol.
Fury (34-2-1) may fight Anthony Joshua next. Regardless, no one wants a piece of Moses Itauma right now although the kid is only 19 years old.
Moses Itauma
Raised in London by a Nigerian father and a Slovakian mother, Itauma turned heads once again with another “wow” performance. None of his last seven opponents lasted beyond the second round.
His opponent tonight, 34-year-old Australian Demsey McKean, lasted less than two minutes. Itauma, a southpaw with blazing fast hands, had the Aussie on the deck twice during the 117-second skirmish. The first knockdown was the result of a cuffing punch that landed high on the head; the second knockdown was produced by an overhand left. McKean went down hard as his chief cornerman bounded on to the ring apron to halt the massacre.
Itauma (12-0, 10 KOs after going 20-0 as an amateur) is the real deal. It was the second straight loss for McKean (22-2) who lasted into the 10th round against Filip Hrgovic in his last start.
Bohachuk-Davis
In a fight billed as the co-main although it preceded Itauma-McKean, Serhii Bohachuk, an LA-based Ukrainian, stopped Ishmael Davis whose corner pulled him out after six frames.
Both fighters were coming off a loss in fights that were close on the scorecards, Bohachuk falling to Vergil Ortiz Jr in a Las Vegas barnburner and Davis losing to Josh Kelly.
Davis, who took the fight on short notice, subbing for Ismail Madrimov, declined to 13-2. He landed a few good shots but was on the canvas in the second round, compliments of a short left hook, and the relentless Bohachuk (25-2, 24 KOs) eventually wore him down.
Fisher-Allen
In a messy, 10-round bar brawl masquerading as a boxing match, Johnny Fisher, the Romford Bull, won a split decision over British countryman David Allen. Two judges favored Fisher by 95-94 tallies with the dissenter favoring Allen 96-93. When the scores were announced, there was a chorus of boos and those watching at home were outraged.
Allen was a step up in class for Fisher. The Doncaster man had a decent record (23-5-2 heading in) and had been routinely matched tough (his former opponents included Dillian Whyte, Luis “King Kong” Ortiz and three former Olympians). But Allen was fairly considered no more than a journeyman and Fisher (12-0 with 11 KOs, eight in the opening round) was a huge favorite.
In round five, Allen had Fisher on the canvas twice although only one was ruled a true knockdown. From that point, he landed the harder shots and, at the final bell, he fell to canvas shedding tears of joy, convinced that he had won.
He did not win, but he exposed Johnny Fisher as a fighter too slow to compete with elite heavyweights, a British version of the ponderous Russian-Canadian campaigner Arslanbek Makhmudov.
Other Bouts of Note
In a spirited 10-round featherweight match, Scotland’s Lee McGregor, a former European bantamweight champion and stablemate of former unified 140-pound title-holder Josh Taylor, advanced to 15-1-1 (11) with a unanimous decision over Isaac Lowe (25-3-3). The judges had it 96-92 and 97-91 twice.
A cousin and regular houseguest of Tyson Fury, Lowe fought most of the fight with cuts around both eyes and was twice deducted a point for losing his gumshield.
In a fight between super featherweights that could have gone either way, Liverpool southpaw Peter McGrail improved to 11-1 (6) with a 10-round unanimous decision over late sub Rhys Edwards. The judges had it 96-95 and 96-94 twice.
McGrail, a Tokyo Olympian and 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medalist, fought from the third round on with a cut above his right eye, the result of an accidental clash of heads. It was the first loss for Edwards (16-1), a 24-year-old Welshman who has another fight booked in three weeks.
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Fury-Usyk Reignited: Can the Gypsy King Avenge his Lone Defeat?
Fury-Usyk Reignited: Can the Gypsy King Avenge his Lone Defeat?
In professional boxing, the heavyweight division, going back to the days of John L. Sullivan, is the straw that stirs the drink. By this measure, the fight on May 18 of this year at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was the biggest prizefight in decades. The winner would emerge as the first undisputed heavyweight champion since 1999 when Lennox Lewis out-pointed Evander Holyfield in their second meeting.
The match did not disappoint. It had several twists and turns.
Usyk did well in the early rounds, but the Gypsy King rattled Usyk with a harsh right hand in the fifth stanza and won rounds five through seven on all three cards. In the ninth, the match turned sharply in favor of the Ukrainian. Fury was saved by the bell after taking a barrage of unanswered punches, the last of which dictated a standing 8-count from referee Mark Nelson. But Fury weathered the storm and with his amazing powers of recuperation had a shade the best of it in the final stanza.
The decision was split: 115-112 and 114-113 for Usyk who became a unified champion in a second weight class; 114-113 for Fury.
That brings us to tomorrow (Saturday, Dec. 21) where Usyk and Fury will renew acquaintances in the same ring where they had their May 18 showdown.
The first fight was a near “pick-‘em” affair with Fury closing a very short favorite at most of the major bookmaking establishments. The Gypsy King would have been a somewhat higher favorite if not for the fact that he was coming off a poor showing against MMA star Francis Ngannou and had a worrisome propensity for getting cut. (A cut above Fury’s right eye in sparring pushed back the fight from its original Feb. 11 date.)
Tomorrow’s sequel, bearing the tagline “Reignited,” finds Usyk a consensus 7/5 favorite although those odds could shorten by post time. (There was no discernible activity after today’s weigh-in where Fury, fully clothed, topped the scales at 281, an increase of 19 pounds over their first meeting.)
Given the politics of boxing, anything “undisputed” is fragile. In June, Usyk abandoned his IBF belt and the organization anointed Daniel Dubois their heavyweight champion based upon Dubois’s eighth-round stoppage of Filip Hrgovic in a bout billed for the IBF interim title. The malodorous WBA, a festering boil on the backside of boxing, now recognizes 43-year-old Kubrat Pulev as its “regular” heavyweight champion.
Another difference between tomorrow’s fight card and the first installment is that the May 18 affair had a much stronger undercard. Two strong pairings were the rematch between cruiserweights Jai Opetaia and Maris Briedis (Opetaia UD 12) and the heavyweight contest between unbeatens Agit Kabayal and Frank Sanchez (Kabayel KO 7).
Tomorrow’s semi-wind-up between Serhii Bohachuk and Ismail Madrimov lost luster when Madrimov came down with bronchitis and had to withdraw. The featherweight contest between Peter McGrail and Dennis McCann fell out when McCann’s VADA test returned an adverse finding. Bohachuk and McGrail remain on the card but against late-sub opponents in matches that are less intriguing.
The focal points of tomorrow’s undercard are the bouts involving undefeated British heavyweights Moses Itauma (10-0, 8 KOs) and Johnny Fisher (12-0, 11 KOs). Both are heavy favorites over their respective opponents but bear watching because they represent the next generation of heavyweight standouts. Fury and Usyk are getting long in the tooth. The Gypsy King is 36; Usyk turns 38 next month.
Bob Arum once said that nobody purchases a pay-per-view for the undercard and, years from now, no one will remember which sanctioning bodies had their fingers in the pie. So, Fury-Usyk II remains a very big deal, although a wee bit less compelling than their first go-around.
Will Tyson Fury avenge his lone defeat? Turki Alalshikh, the Chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority and the unofficial czar of “major league” boxing, certainly hopes so. His Excellency has made known that he stands poised to manufacture a rubber match if Tyson prevails.
We could have already figured this out, but Alalshikh violated one of the protocols of boxing when he came flat out and said so. He effectively made Tyson Fury the “A-side,” no small potatoes considering that the most relevant variable on the checklist when handicapping a fight is, “Who does the promoter need?”
The Uzyk-Fury II fight card will air on DAZN with a suggested list price of $39.99 for U.S. fight fans. The main event is expected to start about 5:45 pm ET / 2:45 pm PT.
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Unheralded Bruno Surace went to Tijuana and Forged the TSS 2024 Upset of the Year
Unheralded Bruno Surace went to Tijuana and Forged the TSS 2024 Upset of the Year
The Dec. 14 fight at Tijuana between Jaime Munguia and Bruno Surace was conceived as a stay-busy fight for Munguia. The scuttlebutt was that Munguia’s promoters, Zanfer and Top Rank, wanted him to have another fight under his belt before thrusting him against Christian Mbilli in a WBC eliminator with the prize for the winner (in theory) a date with Canelo Alvarez.
Munguia came to the fore in May of 2018 at Verona, New York, when he demolished former U.S. Olympian Sadam Ali, conqueror of Miguel Cotto. That earned him the WBO super welterweight title which he successfully defended five times.
Munguia kept winning as he moved up in weight to middleweight and then super middleweight and brought a 43-0 (34) record into his Cinco de Mayo 2024 match with Canelo.
Jaime went the distance with Alvarez and had a few good moments while losing a unanimous decision. He rebounded with a 10th-round stoppage of Canada’s previously undefeated Erik Bazinyan.
There was little reason to think that Munguia would overlook Surace as the Mexican would be fighting in his hometown for the first time since February of 2022 and would want to send the home folks home happy. Moreover, even if Munguia had an off-night, there was no reason to think that the obscure Surace could capitalize. A Frenchman who had never fought outside France, Surace brought a 25-0-2 record and a 22-fight winning streak, but he had only four knockouts to his credit and only eight of his wins had come against opponents with winning records.
It appeared that Munguia would close the show early when he sent the Frenchman to the canvas in the second round with a big left hook. From that point on, Surace fought mostly off his back foot, throwing punches in spurts, whereas the busier Munguia concentrated on chopping him down with body punches. But Surace absorbed those punches well and at the midway point of the fight, behind on the cards but nonplussed, it now looked as if the bout would go the full 10 rounds with Munguia winning a lopsided decision.
Then lightning struck. Out of the blue, Surace connected with an overhand right to the jaw. Munguia went down flat on his back. He rose a fraction-of-a second before the count reached “10,”, but stumbled as he pulled himself upright. His eyes were glazed and referee Juan Jose Ramirez, a local man, waived it off. There was no protest coming from Munguia or his cornermen. The official time was 2:36 of round six.
At major bookmaking establishments, Jaime Munguia was as high as a 35/1 favorite. No world title was at stake, yet this was an upset for the ages.
Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank
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