Derry's John Duddy notched his 23rd straight career victory after ten tough rounds with veteran Howard Eastman at the King’s Hall in Belfast tonight.
Duddy took the middleweight clash on a narrow decision, with referee Sean Russell scoring the fight 96-94 in the 28-year-old's favour.
Eastman, who turned 37 today, was a constant danger with his right upper-cut, though headbutts and some late punched were also part of his array.
The hard fought win moves Duddy a lot closer to his dream of a world title fight, which could happen within 12 months.
Duddy asserted himself early in his 13th fight in two years, willed on by a partisan crowd at the famous Balmoral venue. With a minute left in the opening round the Ulsterman had the Guyanan-born 'Battersea Bomber' penned into the corner and looked to be on his way to a comfortable win.
However, Eastman is not a former European and British champion for no reason and he soon found his feet and his range, particularly with his left hooks and right upper-cuts.
Duddy appeared to take the first two rounds comfortably enough, but by the third his wily opponent was getting a foothold in the contest. The veteran seemed quite willing to slide his head across Duddy’s face and referee Russell warned both men to be more careful in the close exchanges.
The London-based visitor had other tactics and threw the first of a number of unpunished late punches just after the bell.
There was an explosive start to the next round as Duddy began to concentrate on working Eastman's body. The Derryman was soon on the back foot, though, and Eastman closed strongly knocking his opponent’s head back with a sweet left shot.
He was at it again after the bell rang, throwing another late punch before gesturing that he had not heard the bell. He might well be in the twilight of his career, but no one was buying his 'hard of hearing' defence of his actions.
The tide was definitely turning and the fifth round was probably Eastman’s best of the ten. He landed twice with right upper-cuts, but unfortunately chose to use this period of dominance to throw two well-disguised headbutts.
At this point the decibel level from the crowd dropped, with the almost 7,000 patrons inside the hall beginning to realise that Eastman had not come merely to collect his pay cheque.
Eastman was forced to the deck in the seventh round, but the referee correctly decided that he had not been felled as a result of a punch.
By the time the eighth round came the 37-year-old was visibly tiring and as the fight wore on it became blatantly obvious that Duddy had the fight in the bag, as long as he could keep away from Eastman's increasing laboured swings.
Both fighters battled to the last and continued to trade blows until the final bell, which brought a wide smile to the victor's face, though the final result was closer than RTÉ analyst Mick Dowling had scored it.
Nevertheless, Duddy came through the toughest test of his impressive career unscathed and he can now look forward to 2008 with every confidence that he will get his chance to compete for a world title.
