Pegg: Now it’s about what Sam wants - it will be about him
Cutler (left) and Eggington trade shots. Pix: Lawrence Lustig/Boxxer
JON PEGG is disarmingly candid about what the future holds for Sam Eggington after the warrior came through another pulsating, draining and blood-spattered epic.
“Haven’t a clue,” said the manager following Eggington’s victory over Lee Cutler at the BP Pulse Live Arena, Resorts World.
“It will be what he wants, it will be about him, unless it’s silly, life-changing money.”
The Stourbridge Savage – his 13 year, 45 fight career studded with some of domestic boxing’s most thrilling modern encounters – deserves the right to pick and choose. He has earned it.
He went to the well again on Boxxer’s huge Sunday show, spilt blood again, put everything on the line again.
Gashed three times – the slit over Sam’s left eye hanging open like a mouth – referee Mark Bates waved off the action before the ninth round. With the most significant injury caused by a head clash, the WBC international silver light-middleweight battle went to the scorecards.
One judge had it way too wide for Eggington at 90-83, the other two tallied 87-85. I had the gruelling battle all square, marking the sixth and seventh even. I was very much in the minority.
Cutler didn’t emerge unscathed, blood seeping from a gash above his left eye from the fourth.
Pegg, however, has become increased icy over the possibility of a re-match following the Bournemouth boxer’s social media cries of robbery. That, it certainly wasn’t.
“I think it was a bit of a childish attitude, Pegg said, “I thought that was not very magnanimous. I was open to a return and Sam was really complimentary to him (Cutler).”
Eggington, two years older than his opponent at 31, said: “He was always going to be tough – the man’s cut from the same cloth.
“I stuck to the plan, I thought I was winning, I thought I may have been two rounds away. I genuinely thought I won quite clearly.
“I don’t want to put anyone down – tonight just weren’t his night. I sold 300 tickets for this, I don’t know anyone who has boxed for almost 14 years and is still selling out the home-side.”
Eggington, one of the game’s true warriors, deserves to again bask in the spotlight. His remarkable roller-coaster career must one day grind to a halt, yet the fire that burns within the former British, European and IBO world champ shows no sign of subsiding.
Against Cutler (10st 13lbs) he showed he possesses textbook skills as well as an appetite for destruction by doubling and trebling jabs, particularly in the sixth and seventh.
Eggington used his jab effectively throughout the fight
His inside work was also eye-catching, with uppercuts setting-up Cutler for left hooks. At times, Eggington appeared fatigued, yet bit on his gumshield. On reflection, that was the difference between the two men – Eggington simply dug deeper.
“There were times when Sam outboxed him,” Pegg said, “pop, pop, popping that jab. Yes, it was a hard night, but Sam never has easy nights because he’s a strong fighter. Sam would’ve found something when he needed to. Cutler needed to and didn’t.”
I gave the South Coast man the first as he forced Eggington to the ropes and fired body shots. At the end of the second Sam (10st 13lbs) remonstrated angrily after a head clash brought blood spilling down the right side of his face.
He regrouped and took the third by landing eye-catching clusters inside, only for Lee to battle back with body work in the fourth.
It was that kind of a seesaw battle. Eggington, now boxing well at distance, landed a cracking right in the fifth, Cutler responded with a solid right of his own in the eighth – a round he took on my card.
On social media, Pegg posted: “A winning attitude has kept Sam going when he’s been told by everyone it’s time to retire. A winning attitude has just won him his 12th professional belt.
“The Savage Sam Eggington is a prime example of what will to win and attitude can achieve.”
No one can argue with that.