“Boxing is not a place to be half in or half out. Either fully commit or walk away.” Sam Eggington
Born 15 October 1993 in Smethwick, West Midlands, Sam Eggington made his professional boxing debut at the age of 17, whilst also being the father to his newborn son, the very same year. At the time of writing (May 2026), he’s only just announced his retirement and very kindly took the time to chat with British Vintage Boxing, before dashing off to do the school run.
Smethwick’s favourite fighting son explained his route into the square ring and the fact that he had no intention to be in the sport for the long haul. “I got into boxing through my elder brothers. They did some amateur stuff and I just followed on from them.” Not one to blow his own trumpet, Eggington actually had over 30 amateur contests from the age of eight for Warley ABC winning some regional silverware and reaching the 2011 ABA national junior semi-finals. However, his journey into the pro ranks is far from similar. The fighter who carried the moniker of ‘The Savage’ explained. “Me and my missus were both 16 when she became pregnant and at the time I had a job as a forklift driver and that was my plan for work moving forward. The problem was, the job started at 6am and the first train didn’t leave until 6am and I got made redundant, which wasn’t a big shock.
“I needed to make money and heard about the journeyman circuit, that they fought every week and got paid, win, lose or draw. I thought, ‘I’ll have a bit of that.’ Pro boxer, Craig Cunnigham used to go to my amateur gym and when he turned professional with Jon Pegg, I said, ‘I’m happy to go on the road and earn some dough. Can you help?’ He said, ‘Yeah.’ I spoke with Jon and he said, ‘The way you box, the journeyman scene might not be for you though.’ I didn’t get what he meant at the time, but it made sense later.” Eggington’s style certainly didn’t tick the journeyman box in terms of - turn up, get paid, take a few punches and come back another day. He always came to fight and never to lose.
Sam had his pro debut at the age of 17 on 14 September 2012 against Leon Findlay at Oceana in Swansea and recalled said bout. “I went to Wales against this kid and beat him, so the whole journeyman thing went tits up straight away! It snowballed from there on.”
On 3 May 2013, at the age of 18 and now in his sixth fight, Eggington won the Midlands Area welterweight title, stopping Steven Pearce in the seventh round. Sam recalled. “I tell you the truth; I didn’t expect to win anything in boxing. Even by this stage, I had a few wins, but nothing that was going to change my world. I experienced a couple of losses in the Prizefighter tournaments in 2013 and 2014, then I went back to that journeyman mentality again and thought, ‘This is where I go on the road again.’ Boxing was just a job for me, I was young and naïve and just followed the money wherever it was. It’s only when I look back now and realise that winning an Area title was actually a big thing, especially so early on in my career at that age, with very little grounding.
From intended journeyman to boxing in front of thousands in massive arenas, the journey continued. By 9 May 2015, Eggy had won 14 fights and lost two, both of which happened in two consecutive Prizefighter competitions. However, he was starting to fry bigger fish at this point. Putting his WBC International Silver welterweight title on the line, which he’d won two months earlier by knocking out undefeated Shayne Singleton in five rounds, he then stopped
Ghanian, Joseph Lamptey in seven rounds to win the Commonwealth welterweight crown to his collection. Next fight, he won the British welterweight crown and then defended it against Dale Evans on his home turf in Birmingham, which also acted as avengement for his loss against him in the Prizefighter almost three years prior. The fighter with a trademark toe to toe style recalled the bouts. “Winning the fights meant every to me on the night, but I’ll be honest, at the time, I didn’t really know the magnitude of these titles I’d won. I’m not a boxing fan. I don’t watch it or follow it and at the time, I didn’t know what was big time or small fry. I was doing my job and earning dough.”
Unfortunately, he lost the British and Commonwealth straps against Bradley Skeete on 5 March 2016. “Bradley Skeete does what he does and does it well, but because I had defended the belts by coming off the canvas in the second round against Dale Evans in my hometown of Birmingham and won the fight comfortably. Then, when we won the purse bids again for Birmingham to fight Bradley, I genuinely thought that all I had to do was turn up. I was actually already thinking before about what I wanted to do after the fight, not boxing wise, but going out on the piss. Again, young, naïve and a bit daft, and thinking it would go my way. Of course, it didn’t happen that way and it was a big wake up call.”
The wake up call certainly worked and Eggington won his next four fights via stoppage. After halting Daza Usher in the first round in July 2016, he then stopped Frankie Gavin in eight rounds to win the WBC International welterweight title, then stopped former two-weight world champion Paulie Malignaggi at the 02, London forcing him into retirement. Two months later, on 13 May 2017, he beat Spaniard, Ceferino Rodriguez (24-1 at the time), for the European welterweight title, winning by tenth round stoppage. By now, he was 20-3 and still only 23 years old. Eggy discussed his epic run of form. “The Daza Usher one was a comeback fight, but the Frankie Gavin fight, there was a lot of needle in that. Frankie had said a lot of personal things about me before that fight which really made me want to win. I left most of it to one side and my coach got into it more with him than I did on Twitter and all that. When I stopped him, it wasn’t my best win, but it certainly was the sweetest. As for winning the European title – that was nice.” Eggington’s stellar run earned him the award for Boxing Writers’ Club Young Boxer of the Year 2017, at the age of 23.
In his next six fights, Sam lost three, won three, which unfortunately saw him lose his European strap by split decision to Mohamed Mimoune and also a fifth round stoppage against Liam Smith. Eggy paid tribute to Smith. “You know when you get into a ring with someone and they just punch really hard, or they can box really well? Liam Smith was 80%-90% all round the board. He can dig a bit, can box like fuck and knows his way round the ring. His ring IQ is unbelievable. He’s the best I boxed by far.”
Undeterred by his rollercoaster form of three up, three down, between June 2019 and June 2022, he fought nine times, only losing once, in a tight points loss against Ted Cheeseman. In fact, the Cheeseman fight, which was fought in Eddie Hearn’s back garden at the Matchroom HQ, was named the 2020 Contest of the Year by the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC), in possibly the most memorable fight during the pandemic time period.
However, he went one better and in 2021, fought Bilel Jkitou, which he won by split decision. The contest was awarded Fight of the Year by the BBBofC in 2021, in a shoot-out which saw Eggington throw an astonishing 1,317 punches. Sam recalled. “My pad man, Louis is the one that picked that fight. He said, ‘There’s this French guy, quite high in the rankings, he’s unbeaten in 15 fights and he’s won a few titles.’ We thought it would be a comfortable night, but it was clear from the first round that he could punch with both hands, was solid as a rock, physically strong and well up for it, which shocked the life out of me.”
Eggington won via split decision and reflected on the night. “It was a good win and he was a good guy. His whole team were all screaming on the night of the fight, but we met up after and they were really nice guys, all of them. Really polite. They came over from France for the BBBofC Fight of the Year Award ceremony and he went on to win the European middleweight title in 2025. I believe he’s got a world title shot on the horizon and I wish him the best of luck.”
There’s only one way to trump a performance like that. Eggington discussed being informed that he would be fighting Przemyslaw Zysk for the IBO world super welterweight title. “There were whispers that we might have the fight, but it was on and off type talk, however, when it was confirmed, I was over the moon. From where I started, I never thought I was going to get there if I’m honest. It took a while to come off and I can’t thank Mick Hennesey enough to keep the momentum going to get the fight.”
Eggy dished out a one-sided beating and recalled the moment he heard, ‘And the new.’ “It was surreal. For all the fights I’d had and all the belts I’d won, I can’t tell you how nervous I was to get the last piece of the puzzle. I wasn’t eating in the day and I kind of had to force the last meal down before the fight. I remember Jon my trainer saying at dinner, ‘Have a bit more. Eat some more.’ I just didn’t have the right energy to want to eat.
“In the fight, I really went for him and in the fourth or fifth I tried to stop him, but it didn’t happen, which is why I then had to have a few rounds off. But when they announced me as the new world champion, that was just surreal.”
Eggington travelled to Australia to defend the title but lost a very close majority decision to the Ossie resident, Dennis Hogan in his backyard. “I gave that away. This may sound like a child, but I’m not a traveller and can’t be away from home and my family. My heart wasn’t in it. If it wasn’t for my kids, especially my first born, I would have never entered professional boxing. Everything I’ve ever done has been for my children and my other half. From the moment I arrived in Australia, I wanted to be home.”
Eggy fought a further six times, winning four and losing two. He announced his retirement shortly after his last fight on 2 May 2026 against Conah Walker and took the time to answer a couple of lighter hearted questions. Firstly – tattoos. “I had my first one on my arm when I was 17, which was my first son’s name and my last one wasn’t that long ago and it’s on my back. It says, ‘I love you to the moon and back.’ The second question was regarding stitch tally. “Both my eyes after my last fight, was five in total - two for one and three for the other. However, the fight before that I had seven stitches in one eye and the fight before that, nine stitches on one of them! I couldn’t give you an exact number, but I’d probably say more than 40 stitches.”
The man who very rarely follows boxing discussed life after the square ring. “What’s the plan after boxing? Honestly? I have no clue! When I boxed, if I thought beyond my career, it was time to give up, so I never did that. However, now I’ve retired, I’ll take my time to carefully decide my next move.”
Sam Egginton had 46 fights, made up from 36 wins (20 KO’S) and 10 losses. He became Midlands Area champion, Commonwealth, British, European and IBO world champion (plus he picked up a host of IBF, IBO and WBC trinkets) across two weight divisions and will go down as one of Britain’s gutsiest fighters who left us with some real treats to revisit in the future. In true British Vintage Boxing manner, he’s a throwback fighter, more likely suited to the 1950’s, but gifted to the millennial crowd and far beyond. We salute you sir.
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