Boxing: Eastman draws fight focus back to Nottingham

There was a time when Nottingham had a devoted boxing following, but that was before the last title fight at the Ice Rink between the local boxer Dave Needham and Paddy Maguire in 1974.

Boxing returns to the centre of the city tonight when Howard Eastman fights for the European middleweight title against the Frenchman Christophe Tendil at Nottingham Arena.

Eastman is one of British boxing's true world-class fighters and is the nominal main event, but Nottingham's Carl Froch, fighting a London-based Russian, Valerie Odin, and the cult Derby boxer Damon Hague have attracted the public's attention and are jointly responsible for a crowd that could be over 3,500.

"This is a start for Nottingham and Carl," said Mick Hennessy, the London promoter whose emergence during the last 10 months has surprised a lot of boxing insiders. "The Arena is one of the best venues in the country and the plan is to bring Carl back here until he can sell all 10,000 tickets. He will do that soon and then Nottingham fans will be able to boast about having one of the world's best fighters."

But it was not that way when Needham was fighting. His first defence of the British bantamweight title was a rematch with Maguire behind closed doors in front of a few hundred privileged members at the World Sporting Club in London. Needham's path from the Ice Rink venue in his home town to a private London venue was typical of too many rural champions during the late 1960s and 70s in Britain.

Eastman, 32, still holds the British and Commonwealth middleweight titles and has only lost once in 35 fights. He has never been in a long and bruising encounter during a career that has largely taken place in anonymity. He will know too much for Tendil and should stop him by the end of the seventh.

"I've been held back in boxing because that is the way the business works," Eastman said. "In boxing I have seen a lot of guys get publicity that can't fight and a lot of guys who can't get publicity who can fight. Thankfully, my situation has finally changed."

The sensible addition of Hague to the bill in a fight for one of the sport's world title baubles, the World Boxing Federation middleweight crown, against the unbeaten Wayne Pinder from Manchester, will give the event a sense of occasion. Hague, who has lost just once in 23 fights, has a fanatical following and the journey from Derby to Nottingham is short.

The BBC will screen 95 minutes of Hennessy's show as the corporation's struggle with Sky Sports for the hearts and minds of British boxing's armchair fans continues.

It looks likely that Lennox Lewis will fight Mike Tyson on 21 June. Lewis beat Tyson last June but both signed binding contracts with their television companies for a rematch and the still intriguing second fight will happen. There are secret bids to host the fight from three casino complexes in Las Vegas and Madison Square Garden in New York.

Lewis had been expected to fight Ukraine's Vitali Klitschko on 12 April in Las Vegas. But Judd Burnstein, Lewis's attorney, said his man will watch how Tyson does against Clifford Etienne on 22 February before deciding his next move.