Howard Eastman gets the chance to do something tomorrow night I wanted but failed to get the chance to do, and that is fight great American champion Bernard Hopkins for the undisputed world middleweight title.

My promoter, Frank Warren, tried hard for years to secure what I felt would be a defining fight with Hopkins, but it never came off.

Now Eastman gets the opportunity to do what 19 previous challengers have failed to do, and that's dethrone one of the world's greats.

I have long admired Hopkins for his tremendous professionalism and ability to keep himself in great shape and he has looked unbeatable for many years now.

He is rightly recognised as one of the best pound for pound boxers in the world but I truly feel I could have beaten him and it will remain one of the regrets of my career that I never got the chance to prove it.

Eastman now gets that chance and the question is has he got the ability to win the title, having lost one previous world title attempt, his only defeat in 40 contests, 34 won by KO or stoppage?

In his remarkable career Hopkins has beaten such fighters as Felix Trinidad, Oscar De La Hoya and William Joppy and has an overall record of 45 wins, 32 by KO or stoppage, with just two defeats.

One was in his first professional fight at the age of 23 when beaten on a majority points decision by one Clinton Mitchell and the other was a unanimous points defeat by the then great Roy Jones junior in 1993.

He beat Joppy on a unanimous points decision in December 2003, two years after Eastman had lost a majority points decision to the same boxer in Las Vegas when he had Joppy down in the final seconds.

So though overall Eastman has not been in against the same class of opponent, the line through Joppy suggests that there may not be that much between them.

Last time out Eastman defeated strong super-middleweight Jerry Elliott, who went the distance with and knocked down my next WBO world super-middleweight title opponent in Belfast on March 18, Brian Magee.

There is no doubt that Eastman is right right up for this fight. He has been regarded sometimes as too negative, but for Hopkins he has been talking a good fight, claiming he will knock him out in five rounds, and appears 100% confident.

I certainly don't think it will be one way traffic because Eastman can box and he can fight and has a good punch as his record shows, while he is also very strong and durable.

Obviously, Hopkins has to be the big favourite but he's 40 years old, he's no superman and he can't go on forever.

I still think Eastman's a big underdog but he has got a lot of ability and if he can stay in there in the early rounds and stretch Hopkins' stamina and test his ageing legs and body, who knows what might happen, though that's assuming Eastman himself lasts out as he is 34 himself.

I'm certainly glad the authorities had second thoughts and decided to televise the fight, as I suggested they ought in this column several weeks ago.

It can be seen live on the satellite pay-per-view channel Setanta while it will be screened in full on BBC 2 on the Sunday.

I will certainly be looking in with interest and hoping a fellow Brit (hometown Battersea, though born in Guyana) can put up a big display against one of America's boxing idols in front of a partisan crowd in Los Angeles.

I had the opportunity this week to meet my next opponent Brian Magee in Belfast in an early head-to-head to promote our March 18 fight.

I have every respect for Magee, as I told you last week, but told him I would have to knock him out. I think the fight will pull in tremendous support from the Irish fans who will be behind Magee to a man and he thinks that will spur him on to victory.

But more than one of my opponents has thought the same in the past and it has done them no good.

In the end, essentially everything comes down to ability and in the super-middleweight division there really is still no one to challenge me.