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 | | Sunday, 18 November, 2001, 04:14 GMT Joppy defeats plucky Eastman  Joppy (right) won a contested decision in Las Vegas By BBC Sport Online's Sanjeev Shetty in Las Vegas. William Joppy took Howard Eastman's vacant World Boxing Association middleweight by a controversial majority points decision in Las Vegas. Fighting on the undercard of the Lewis-Rahman rematch, Britain's Eastman acquitted himself well against the more experienced American. But he lost a majority decision by totals of 115-112, 114-112, with a third judge scoring it an even draw at 113-113.
Eastman appeared to have sealed his win with a fantastic final round that saw him floor Joppy in the final ten seconds with two crushing right hands. But that was not enough for the judges, who delivered a debatable decision. Eastman entered the fight as the holder of the British, European and Commonwealth Middleweight titles. Nevertheless, fighting someone of Joppy's class was a big risk. Joppy had twice held the belt that the pair was fighting for, although in his last fight Felix Trinidad stopped him in five rounds. Joppy landed most of the significant punches during the first two rounds, his speed befuddling Eastman.
But from there, Eastman appeared to take over and landed the heavier punches of an exceptional fight. The first signs of genuine needle between the two fighters came at the end of the fourth round, with the pair having to be separated by referee Jay Nady at the sound of the bell. By the eighth round, Eastman had enough confidence to start playing games with his weary opponent. The final round saw Eastman dominate until landing some heavy punches on his opponent that forced the knockdown. For the record, BBC Sport Online scored the fight 116-111 to Eastman. Eastman's record drops to 33 wins and one loss with 29 coming by knockout, while Joppy's decision improves his record to 33 wins, two losses and one draw with 24 knockouts.
Of the three judges, Chuck Giampa scored the bout even, but only after giving the last round to Eastman by a score of 10 points to seven. Such an interpretation is unusual, as a fighter needs to floor his opponent twice for such a margin. If Giampa had agreed with his two colleagues Bill Graham and Robert Watson on the final round, then Joppy would have received a unanimous decision. Controversial Graham scored the fight 115-112, which meant eight rounds to four to Joppy. He was also the judge who scored the second Lennox Lewis-Evander Holyfield fight in 1999 by nine rounds to three in favour of the British fighter, an interpretation heavily criticised at the time. All three judges are American, with Graham and Giampa from Las Vegas and Watson from Silver Springs, Michigan. According to the fight statistics, Joppy landed 21 punches more than Eastman, although the British fighter landed more of his powerpunches. | |
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