Barney Eastwood was Mr. Boxing in Belfast

Published

5 years ago

March 10, 2020

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.

Check out more boxing news on video at The Boxing Channel

To comment on this story in The Fight Forum CLICK HERE

Post Views: 0

Share The Sweet Science experience!

Arne K. Lang

Up Next

No Foul Play Suspected in the Death of Floyd Mayweather’s Ex, Josie Harris

Don't Miss

The Shocker in Brooklyn Leads Off This Week’s Edition of HITS and MISSES

Argentina’s Fernando Martinez Wins His Rematch with Kazuto Ioka

Published

3 hours ago

May 11, 2025

Arne K. Lang

Argentina's-Fernando-Martinez-Wins-His-Rematch-with-Kazuto-Ioka

In an excellent fight climaxed by a furious 12^th round, Argentina’s Fernando Daniel Martinez came off the deck to win his rematch with Kazuto Ioka and retain his piece of the world 115-pound title. The match was staged at Ioka’s familiar stomping grounds, the Ota-City General Gymnasium in Tokyo.

In their first meeting on July 7 of last year in Tokyo, Martinez was returned the winner on scores of 117-111, 116-112, and a bizarre 120-108. The rematch was slated for late December, but Martinez took ill a few hours before the weigh-in and the bout was postponed.

The 33-year-old Martinez, who came in sporting a 17-0 (9) record, was a 7-2 favorite to win the sequel, but there were plenty of reasons to favor Ioka, 36, aside from his home field advantage. The first Japanese male fighter to win world titles in four weight classes, Ioka was 3-0 in rematches and his long-time trainer Ismael Salas was on a nice roll. Salas was 2-0 last weekend in Times Square, having handled upset-maker Rolly Romero and Reito Tsutsumi who was making his pro debut.

But the fourth time was not a charm for Ioka (31-4-1) who seemingly pulled the fight out of the fire in round 10 when he pitched the Argentine to the canvas with a pair of left hooks, but then wasn’t able to capitalize on the momentum swing.

Martinez set a fast pace and had Ioka fighting off his back foot for much of the fight. Beginning in round seven, Martinez looked fatigued, but the Argentine was conserving his energy for the championship rounds. In the end, he won the bout on all three cards: 114-113, 116-112, 117-110.

Up next for Fernando Martinez may be a date with fellow unbeaten Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, the lineal champion at 115. San Antonio’s Rodriguez is a huge favorite to keep his title when he defends against South Africa’s obscure Phumelela Cafu on July 19 in Frisco, Texas.

As for Ioka, had he won today’s rematch, that may have gotten him over the hump in so far as making it into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. True, winning titles in four weight classes is no great shakes when the bookends are only 10 pounds apart, but Ioka is still a worthy candidate.

To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE

Post Views: 0

Share The Sweet Science experience!

Emanuel Navarrete Survives a Bloody Battle with Charly Suarez in San Diego

Published

5 hours ago

May 11, 2025

David A. Avila

Emanuel-Navarrete-Survives-a-Bloody-Battle-with-Charly-Suarez-in-San-Diego

In a torrid battle Mexico’s Emanuel “Vaquero” Navarrete and his staccato attack staved off the herky-jerky non-stop assaults of Philippine’s Charly Suarez to win by technical decision and retain the WBO super feather world title on Saturday.

What do they feed these guys?

Navarrete (40-2-1, 32 KOs) and his elongated arms managed to connect enough to compensate against the surprising Suarez (18-1, 10 KOs) who wowed the crowd at Pechanga Arena in San Diego.

An accidental clash of heads opened a cut on the side of Navarrete’s left eye and forced a stoppage midway through the fight.

From the opening round Navarrete used his windmill style of attack with punches from different angles that caught Suarez multiple times early. It did not matter. Suarez fired back with impunity and was just as hungry to punch it out with the Mexican fighter.

It was savage.

Every time Navarrete connected solidly, he seemed to pause and check out the damage. Bad idea. Suarez would immediately counter with bombs of his own and surprise the champion with his resilience and tenacity.

Wherever they found Suarez they should look for more, because the Filipino fighter from Manila was ferocious and never out of his depth.

Around the sixth round the Mexican fighter seemed a little drained and puzzled at the tireless attacks coming from Suarez. During an exchange of blows a cut opened up on Navarrete and it was ruled an accidental clash of heads by the referee. Blood streamed down the side of Navarrete’s face and it was cleared by the ringside physician.

But at the opening of the eighth round, the fight was stopped and the ringside physician ruled the cut was too bad to continue. The California State Athletic Commission looked at tape of the round when the cut opened to decipher if it was an accidental butt or a punch that caused the cut. It was unclear so the referee’s call of accidental clash of heads stood as the final ruling.

Score cards from the judges saw Navarrete the winner by scores of 78-75, 77-76 twice. He retains the WBO title.

Interim IBF Lightweight Title

The sharp-shooting Raymond “Danger” Muratalla (23-0, 17 KOs) maneuvered past Russia’s Zaur Abdullaev (20-2, 12 KOs) by unanimous decision to win the interim IBF lightweight title after 12 rounds.

Both fighters were strategic in their approach with Muratalla switching from orthodox to southpaw at various times of the fight. Neither fighter was ever able to dominant any round.

Defense proved the difference between the two lightweights. Muratalla was able to slip more blows than Abdullaev and that proved the difference. The fighter from Fontana, California was able to pierce Abdullaev’s guard more often than not, especially with counter punches.

Abdullaev was never out of the fight. The Russian fighter was able to change tactics and counter the counters midway through the fight. It proved effective especially to the body. But it was not enough to offset Muratalla’s accuracy.

There were no knockdowns and after 12 rounds the judges scored it 118-110, 119-109 twice for Muratalla who now becomes the mandatory for the IBF lightweight title should Vasyl Lomachenko return to defend it.

Muratalla was brief.

“He was a tough fighter,” said Muratalla. “My defense is something I work on a lot.”

Perla Wins

Super flyweight Perla Bazaldua (2-0) eased past Mona Ward (0-2) with a polished display of fighting at length and inside.

Combination punching and defense allowed Bazaldua to punch in-between Ward’s attacks and force the St. Louis fighter to clinch repeatedly. But Ward hung in there despite taking a lot of blows. After four rounds the Los Angeles-based Bazaldua was scored the winner 40-36 on all three cards. Bazaldua signed a long term contract with Top Rank in March.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE

Post Views: 0

Share The Sweet Science experience!

Late Bloomer Anthony Cacace TKOs Hometown Favorite Leigh Wood in Nottingham

Published

18 hours ago

May 10, 2025

Arne K. Lang

Late-Bloomer-Anthony-Cacace-TKOs-Hometown-Favorite-Leigh-Wood-in-Nottingham

Frank Warren’s Queensberry Promotions was at Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham, England, tonight with a card featuring hometown favorite Leigh Wood against Ireland’s Anthony “Apache” Cacace.

Wood, a former two-time WBA featherweight champion, known for dramatic comebacks in bouts he was losing, may have reached the end of the road at age 36. He had his moments tonight, rocking Cacace on several occasions and winning the eighth round, but he paid the price, returning to his corner after round eight with swelling around both of his eyes.

In the ninth, Cacace, an 11/5 favorite, hurt Wood twice with left hands, the second of which knocked Wood into the ropes, dictating a standing 8-count by referee John Latham. When the bout resumed, Cacace went for the kill and battered Wood around the ring, forcing Wood’s trainer Ben Davison to throw in the towel. The official time was 2:15 of round nine.

Akin to Wood, Northern Ireland’s Cacace (24-1, 9 KOs) is also 36 years old and known as a late bloomer. This was his ninth straight win going back to 2017 (he missed all of 2018 and 2020). He formerly held the IBF 130-pound world title, a diadem he won with a stoppage of then-undefeated and heavily favored Joe Cordina, but that belt wasn’t at stake tonight as Cacace abandoned it rather than fulfill his less-lucrative mandatory. Wood falls to 28-4.

Semi-Wind-Up

Nottingham light heavyweight Ezra Taylor, fighting in his hometown for the first time since pro debut, delighted his fan base with a comprehensive 10-round decision over previously undefeated Troy Jones. Taylor, who improved to 12-0 (9) won by scores of 100-90, 99-91, and 98-92.

This was Taylor’s first fight with new trainer Malik Scott, best known for his work with Deontay Wilder. The victory may have earned him a match with Commonwealth title-holder Lewis Edmondson. Jones was 12-0 heading in.

Other Bouts of Note

In his first fight as a featherweight, Liam Davies rebounded from his first defeat with a 12-round unanimous decision over Northern Ireland’s previously undefeated Kurt Walker. Davies, who improved to 17-1 (8), staved off a late rally to prevail on scores of 115-113, 116-112, and 117-111. It was the first pro loss for the 30-year-old Walker (12-1), a Tokyo Olympian.

In a mild upset, Owen Cooper, a saucy Worcestershire man, won a 10-round decision over former Josh Taylor stablemate Chris Kongo. The referee’s scorecard read 96-94.

Cooper improved to 11-1 (4). It was the third loss in 20 starts for Kongo.

A non-televised 8-rounder featured junior welterweight Sam Noakes in a stay-busy fight. A roofer by trade and the brother of British welterweight title-holder Sean Noakes, Sam improved to 17-0 (15 KOs) with a third-round stoppage of overmatched Czech import Patrik Balez (13-5-1).

Photo credit: Leigh Dawney / Queensberry

To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE

Post Views: 0

Share The Sweet Science experience!