Boxing: Eastman aims high

Howard Eastman aims to take on the world's best middleweights after regaining the European title at Nottingham Arena on Tuesday. The Battersea fighter stopped the Frenchman Christophe Tendil in the fourth round of a one-sided affair to win back the belt he had relinquished to challenge for the WBA title in November 2001.

"I've already been to the US and shown them what I can do," Eastman said. "One of the guys out there has still got the title that is rightfully mine. I want to fight one of the top guys now but you can bet your life on the fact that they are shaking."

Eastman needed rounds under his belt after a relatively quiet spell and shrugged off Tendil's sporadic clumsy approaches before turning up the heat with a persistently accurate left jab.

Early in the fourth round Eastman unleashed two cracking rights which rocked Tendil back and forced the intervention of the Belgian referee Daniel van der Wiele.