Barney Eastwood
Boxing manager who guided Barry Mcguigan to the world title but ended up in a legal battle with him
BARNEY EASTWOOD, the Belfast fight manager and promoter who has died aged 87, will forever be linked to Barry Mcguigan’s memorable rise to the world featherweight championship in 1985 before their own relationship turned sour. The two men formed a solid alliance for several years but were pulled apart by mounting differences which came to a head following Mcguigan’s disastrous world title defence against an unheralded Texan plumber’s assistant named Steve Cruz in the blistering heat of the Nevada desert in June 1986.
Prior to that the Eastwood-mcguigan partnership had appeared impregnable. Eastwood, a Belfast bookmaker, had teamed up with the charismatic Mcguigan with the stated aim of bringing big-time boxing back to the city. The promoter’s innate understanding of the somewhat cut-throat nature of the business, coupled with clever marketing tactics, would rapidly establish Mcguigan as once of the best-known faces in British sport.
Fittingly, when the fighter’s celebrated career peaked with victory over the Panamanian Eusebio Pedroza, the longreigning World Boxing Association champion, amid memorable scenes at Loftus Road, the home of Queens Park Rangers in west London, on June 8 1985, the beaming Eastwood was at his side.
By becoming champion, the “Clones Cyclone” struck a vital blow for the Northern Ireland peace process – for while Mcguigan himself was a Roman Catholic, his triumphs in the ring appealed to those of all religious faiths and came to symbolise neutrality and peace during that turbulent and violent period.
This powerful image, complete with the accompanying slogan: “Leave the fighting to Mcguigan”, was largely down to the canny Eastwood. Mcguigan’s endearing post-fight habit of thanking “Mr Eastwood” was parodied in comedy song.
Acting on the latter’s advice, Mcguigan even took out British citizenship in order to contest the British title, a move that was not universally popular in Ireland.
Barney Eastwood was born in Cookstown, County Tyrone, on March 26 1932; an early interest in the noble art was whetted by watching fights between US Army soldiers based locally during the Second World War.
Soon after his marriage he took over a pub in Carrickfergus, a £2,000 investment which would lead to the Eastwood chain of bookmakers, which in 2008 he sold to Ladbrokes in a deal worth £135m.
Having been drawn into boxing by a friend struggling to sell a fight, Eastwood had emerged as a leading promoter by the 1980s, having opened Eastwood’s Gym above a Belfast betting shop.
Streetwise, charming and quick-witted, Eastwood was ideally suited to the boxing world. “If you had what I owed you’d be very wealthy,” he told one interviewer. He insisted that the bulk of his wealth came from property development and other business interests and remained steadfast in his belief that live television was harmful to boxing.
“Out of maybe 100 professional boxing shows that I’ve run, I’m sure it is common knowledge that maybe only seven or eight have made any money,” he once claimed.
While Eastwood generally enjoyed a sound relationship with the boxing press he quickly gained a no-nonsense reputation.
“I’m not telling you guys how to do your job,” he told the press bench prior to a Dave “Boy” Mcauley fight, “but I am asking you to tell it warts and all – not the warts alone.” Along with Mcguigan, Eastwood would go on to promote the world champions Mcauley, Crisanto Espana, Paul Hodkinson and Victor Cordoba. When the talented Sheffield middleweight Herol Graham narrowly lost a European title challenge to the Italian Sumbu Kalambay, Eastwood remarked: “Herol boxed just like a horse that has been nobbled.”
Eastwood’s high-water mark would remain Mcguigan’s emotional victory over Pedroza before a domestic television audience of more than 19 million. “It was a good time, and great for the public,” he reflected a quarter of a century later. “It was during a period when people were crying out for something to lift things, brighten life, someone they could support in sport. He just came at the right time.”
Twelve months later, after defeat to Cruz had seen him taken to hospital in Las Vegas for dehydration, Mcguigan claimed that Eastwood had allowed him to go into the fight carrying an injury.
The fallen champion subsequently took legal action against his long-time mentor, only for the promoter to counter-sue. The one-time partners settled on the steps of Belfast High Court on the morning the case was due to open, for an amount generally accepted to be around £600,000.
“Truth was on my side,” said Eastwood after the decision. “I am just walking away now to forget about everything, to get on with my life, my work.” The two men never spoke again, although Mcguigan posted a warm tribute on social media when Eastwood’s death was announced.
Barney Eastwood is survived by his wife Frances and by a daughter and five sons; another son predeceased him.
Barney Eastwood, born March 26 1932, died March 9 2020