Sam Eggington has had an eventful career but he is taking it in his stride and looking forward to another title fight.
Eggington fights live on DAZN.com tonight (check for country details here) against Abass Baraou for the vacant EBU super welterweight championship, a belt he has held once before in his career, amongst other accolades.
A 34-8, 20 KOs record and two Fights of the Year are testament to his reputation as an entertaining fighter, and if he wins on Friday then he could perhaps look ahead to bigger names in the coming years, but he told BoxingScene.com that he was not the kind of fighter to push hard in the media.
“Oh, I just can’t do it. It’s not me at all. I wish I could because I’d probably get paid more but I’ve just not got it in me. I’d make myself look a fool,” he said.
“A lot of people run their mouths but when it gets hard in the ring they don’t get off their stool.
“I don’t rely on anything else. I don’t rely on social media followings or ringwalks. I’m not gonna do a backflip after I win. I rely on being in the gym, being exciting and I go from bell to bell. If that’s not good enough, then that’s how it is. I rely on my excitement to get me on these shows. I think a lot of people put too much into it.
“Yeah, I’ve lost some but every time I have lost I’ve come back better. I lost the British title and won the European. I lost the European, went up a weight and won the WBC Silver title and the IBO world and now I’m here.”
Looking back on his time as a forklift truck driver, he said he approached boxing in the same manner.
“Honestly, I didn’t used to love it. It was just a job,” he said. “In the welterweight days you couldn’t get me to do anything extra. I enjoy it now. I take in the training but before I was doing it as a job. I’d go in and train hard but once I’d done what I was told, you wouldn’t get an extra press up out of me. I wouldn’t do an extra run at night. I love it more now than I ever did.
“I fell into this stuff. I was a forklift driver. It’s just snowballed. I turned over to be a journeyman and when I won the Midlands title that was my ceiling. That’s all I was meant to win, if that. It’s gone on and on and on and I’ve shocked most because not many thought I’d ever do anything. I’ve shocked myself massively.”
One career highlight came in 2017 when he beat Paulie Malignaggi for the WBC International welterweight belt, and Eggington puts that down to his stoic approach.
“I think a lot of things that have gone in my favour in my career have happened because I didn’t put pressure on myself,” he said. “Even the big pay-per-view cards at the O2, it was just my job. Fifteen minutes after getting out of the ring I was on the motorway home. I don’t put pressure on it. It’s my job at the end of the day.
“I’ll go in there and try to make it as good a night as I can. I won’t change that mentality or overthink things. I don’t wanna overthink what I’m gonna do or who else has done something in the past. That’ll cloud what you’re going to do in the first place. In the end you just want to go out and win.”
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