There's a new player in the middleweight division and his name is Edison Miranda. The Colombian Miranda stopped longtime contender Howard Eastman in the seventh round in Hollywood, Florida to become the IBF mandatory contender to Arthur Abraham. Now 26-0, Miranda started slowly but showed his vaunted power when consecutive right hands bucked Eastman in the fifth. The experienced Eastman held on and survived the round and returned read more ...

Amid 90-degree temperatures and sweltering humidity Wednesday in Hollywood, Florida, the final press conference for the biggest ESPN2 "Friday Night Fights" telecast in years, featuring unbeaten Edison "Pantera" Miranda (25-0, 22 KOs) against "The Battersea Bomber" Howard Eastman (40-3, 34 KOs) in an IBF middleweight eliminator, only served to heat things up even more read more ...

Howard Eastman: "I hope he will give me another opportunity. Most definitely he ran. He was strategizing at the same time. I cut the ring off and the referee never gave us a chance to fight. I was fighting Hopkins and the referee at the same time..." read more ...

During the fight some of the crowd booed. "I think they wanted to see a Gatti-Ward type fight and I gave it to them in spurts, but I don't fight like that way," said Hopkins. "I've got my style and I can turn it up when I want to"... read more ...

Bernard Hopkins was originally planning to defend just his WBC title when facing Howard Eastman Saturday night in Los Angeles. However now the IBF, WBA and WBO have all added their sanction to the Hopkins-Eastman fight, making this the first ever title defense of the four major belts all at one time... read more ...

- What are your expectations going into the upcoming Howard Eastman fight on February 19th at the Staples Center in Los Angeles? Bernard Hopkins: “I am going to go in there and be Bernard. I will remove any thoughts from Eastman’s mind that he can win the fight so that in his mind he is only trying to survive. I will force my will and demeanor upon him. I plan to counter him mentally and physically...” read more ...

UK middleweight Howard “The Battersea Bomber” Eastman, 40-1 (34), is an eccentric, deeply religious warrior intent on spoiling Bernard Hopkins “Exxecution” party on February 19. Scheduled to challenge the future hall of famer for his WBC title at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, Eastman has vowed to knock Hopkins out in five rounds. Think he can do it? He does... read more ...