“HE who fights and runs away lives to fight another day,” was the fighting strategy adapted by Team Jamaica’s Kevin ‘Bus Boy’ Hylton against his Team Caribbean opponent Howard ‘Battersea Bomber’ Eastman in their 2014 Wray & Nephew Contender Boxing series quarter-final fiasco at the Chinese Benevolent Association Auditorium on Wednesday night.

“You can run but you cannot hide,” was the countervailing move devised by Eastman to get the better of Hylton’s evasive action that made all the running a vain attempt.

The boxing ring is a small place to hide and when the ‘Battersea Bomber’ caught up with the ‘Bus Boy’ it was “licks in his skin like fire”.

The ‘Bus Boy’ suffered the first of his two knock-downs in round number two coming from a sharp chopping left to the side of the head. The other came in round number four this time from the right. It was a cross that he never saw just before getting on his bicycle.

In between rounds, both boxers hit the canvas but this was from slipping. The second knock-down really shook up the ‘Bus Boy’.

The ‘Bus Boy’s’ excessive movement to get out of harm’s way left him noticeably all fogged out trying to catch his wind at the end of the fight leaning against the ropes distressed.

And after six rounds of chicken chasing by Eastman and two knock-downs against Hylton and a point deducted from Eastman for a foul blow behind the head of Hylton, the verdict was unanimous. The ‘Battersea Bomber’ had triumphed over the ‘Bus Boy’ by a substantial margin as all three judges — Keith Brown, Clifford Brown and Stephen Hodges — scored the bout in favour of Eastman 58-54, 58-54 and 58-53, respectively.

The victory places Eastman into the semi-final stages of the Contender series to await his next opponent, while Hylton sat in his dressing room distressed and trying to overcome exertion while licking his wounds He refused to talk with reporters after exiting the ring.

Eastman on the other hand, nine years older than Hylton, showed that he was in remarkably good shape and responded as though it was a light afternoon’s workout.

“I have fought many fighters in my time, but none as slippery as the ‘Bus Boy’. But you have these obstacles in the game and you will have to overcome them. I take my hat off to the opponent (as) he boxes beautifully, but he does not throw punches when

he boxes.

“He just run but do not activate his hands, and if he had activated his hands, the fight might have been closer. He probably might have got a knockout but you are in a fight and running and not throwing punches makes it very hard to hit him. He is fighting and moving and the only angle he is giving me is the side of the head and I have to take it,” said Eastman.

Although Hylton was on his bicycle he did catch Eastman with some good shots, but they were too sporadic to have created any great impression.