Boxing: Eastman ups tempo to stop Beardsley

As expected the British, Commonwealth and European middleweight champion, Howard Eastman, easily stopped Harry Beardsley in front of a capacity crowd at York Hall, Bethnal Green last night.

Eastman and Beardsley operate at opposite ends of the boxing spectrum but a variety of reasons threw the pair of them together last night in a fight that was never going to be competitive.

Eastman, 32, boxed casually and coolly in the opening round but in round two he suddenly increased the tempo, accuracy and power of his punches and at 2min 27sec the referee, Ian John-Lewis, decided enough was enough.

"It was not an ideal fight but I had no option once opponents had pulled out," the promoter, Nick Hennessy, said. "I know that Howard is one of the best middleweights in the world and he wanted the fight and Beardsley was due to fight on the same bill so I just made it."

Eastman's next fight will be a triple title defence at the Nottingham Arena on 16 April against Portsmouth's Scott Dann. Also on the bill will be Beardsley against Matthew Thirlwall in a rematch of their close encounter from February when Beardsley won a tight decision.

Earlier, Eastman's younger brother, Gilbert, completed the first part of the family double with a 60-55 six-round light-middleweight victory over Warley's Howard Clarke.