Eastman and Magee Risk German Vacation.

Howard Eastman and Brian Magee leave their British homeland in search of victory as they both take the stage in Nurnberg, Germany tonight. Magee has the higher profile assignment as he squares off against Vitali Tsypko in an eliminator for the IBF super middleweight title as well as to see just who will become the new European champion at that weight. Eastman has the more difficult fight, however, as he’ll try to become the first to hand German based Armenian puncher Arthur Abraham a loss as the two contend for Abraham’s WBA Intercontinental middleweight crown. While the “Battersea Bomber” has bags of experience against the best middleweights in the world, he’ll have to dissuade the fully confident Abraham who will have the edge in momentum going in.

Don’t miss this exclusive preview as Curtis McCormick rounds up all of the European action happening tonight.

Up until June of last year, Brian Magee had nothing but success at every turn. The Belfast southpaw won his first twenty-two fights, picking up the IBO belt along the way. Accomplished foes such as Hassine Cherifi, Jerry Elliott and Andre Thysse could not stop his forward motion but then came trouble in the form of Robin Reid. The Englishman was a former WBC super middleweight titlist who had given divisional kingpin Joe Calzaghe his only real struggle but had for several years been facing limited opposition. Reid stepped to the occasion and put Magee on the canvas a full four times en route to taking the IBO crown although the Ulsterman did have periods where his quality shone through.

Tsypko, also a left-hander, comes into his big opportunity against Magee undefeated in fifteen bouts and has finished nine opponents early. The Ukrainian doesn’t have as impressive a resume as tonight’s adversary but has shared the ring with current IBF titlist Jeff Lacy. Unfortunately, nothing concrete can be drawn from the pairing as a cut suffered by Tsypko stopped the bout in the second round but Lacy did look to be on his way to finding the much taller European with his big punching style.

This should be as good an opportunity as Magee will get to win the European crown and leapfrog to the number one spot for an IBF title challenge. Tsypko lacks concussive power and Magee, 23-1 (16), can bang a fair bit behind underrated boxing skills.

Despite a career that has seen him win the European, Commonwealth and British titles, at thirty-four-years-of age, Howard Eastman could be riding the last chance express in this opportunity at Arthur Abraham’s regional WBA title. The Londoner, 40-2 (34) has gone twenty-four rounds in world title bouts against both Bernard Hopkins and William Joppy but must look impressive against the Armenian if he is to once again challenge for genuine world honors.

In won’t be easy, as Abraham, 16-0 (15), has belted out everyone he’s faced with the exception of slippery Canadian boxer Ian Gardner. The twenty-five-year-old has turned back Nader Hamdan, Hector Velazco and Branko Sobot but will be taking a massive step up in class when throwing punches at Eastman.

The Briton likes to operate at a controlled, measured pace and must maintain that level of action while keeping Abraham at the end of his educated offense. If Eastman can’t contain his foe and a dogfight ensues, this may the proud native-born Guyanese fighter’s last hurrah.

Curtis McCormick can be reached at thomaspointrd@aol.com