BATTLE-SCARRED Black Country warrior Sam Eggington is to be honoured with a lifetime achievement award by the World Boxing Council.
He will receive it on Scott Murray’s St Andrew’s Night show next Thursday, November 27, at Cannock’s plush Excelsior Sporting Club.
The accolade is richly deserved.
Eggington, aged 32, told me: “Of all the belts and trophies I’ve picked up over the years, the ones for recognition are the ones I cherish the most.
“To receive one from the most respected governing body in the sport makes me very proud. I’m really chuffed and can’t wait to receive it.”
Sam’s remarkable 45 bout career, which has seen him crowned British, Commonwealth, European and IBO world champ, includes nine WBC title fights. That is a staggering number.
The list of memorable nights is very long. The Savage burst into the big league in 2015 by beating Joseph Lamptey for the Commonwealth welterweight title and captured the Lonsdale Belt in his next bout: I consider that victory over Glenn Foot the best boxing performance by Sam.
In 2016, he stopped Frankie Gavin for the WBC silver welterweight title in a Birmingham derby classic.
In 2017 he beat former world champ Paul Malignaggi for the WBC international title and became European champ in the same year by halting Ceferino Rodriguez.
At light-middle, Eggington blitzed Orlando Fiordigiglio to become IBF international champ and took a version of the world title in 2022 with a distance win over Przemyslaw Zysk.
The fighter is still a force. In 2023, he simply destroyed knockout artist Joe Pigford and this year took the WBC international silver belt from Lee Cutler.
He has beaten eight previously undefeated fighters and featured in 26 scheduled 10 or 12 rounders.
Those are the statistics that make a legend.
He added: “Obviously, I’m looking for the big fights and, hopefully, the phone will ring. If not, we’ve scheduled an eight rounder on a Scott Murray show in February – Scott always puts on good shows.”
Manager Jon Pegg feels strongly Sam has been chronically undervalued by press and the wider public.
“Sam is the Midlands’ most underrated boxer ever,” Pegg insisted in a previous interview.
“He’s just different and I don’t think I’ll have anyone like him again, he’s just a natural warrior. He could slot into any (boxing) era, he’s a complete, natural fighter.”
And Pegg positively bristles over claims Eggington is merely a scrapper who’s had too many wars.
He added: “Marvin Hagler took as much punishment as Sam in every fight. Did Sugar Ray Leonard have too many wars? The greats had fire-fight after fire-fight – Sam is having old school fights in an era when people are wrapped in cotton wool.
“He has been dropped once in 45 fights, Frankie Gavin – a ‘defensive maestro’ – was down eight times.
“The crazy thing is, everybody loves the film Rocky, but find the closest real-life version to it and people just want to downgrade it.”
