Sam: I’ve never been given the credit my boxing skills deserve

Sam Eggington…produced a boxing master class at Excelsior

IT seems a little eccentric to say after a 12 year, 44 bout career that has featured some of the greatest tear-ups in recent history that I may have underestimated Sam Eggington’s defensive capabilities.

But on Thursday night, I concentrated – possibly for the first time – solely on the former champion’s movement and drew the conclusion The Savage is not just all about savagery. There’s sweet stuff in there.

Against Alan Sebastian Velazquez – handily outpointed at Cannock’s Excelsior Sporting Club – he showed textbook old school poise and precision.

It was a master-class in pressure fighting, with referee Ryan Churchill scoring a six round, 60-54 landslide for the Stourbridge 31-year-old.

Without sounding like a Strictly Come Dancing judge, the footwork was immaculate: the distance between both feet, angle of the back foot…

The head movement was mightily impressive, with shots slipped by fractions.

I’m not saying we’ve all got Sam Eggington wrong and, let’s be honest, the epics with Ted Cheeseman and Bilal Jkitou were both a case of two men taking it in turns to hit each other.

But the skilful British welterweight title performance he gave against Glenn Foot in 2015 has been pretty much forgotten, the wars remembered.

As manager Jon Pegg put it: “You don’t suffer one knockdown in 44 fights if you can’t box and avoid punches.”

Eggington believes he’s suffered from being seen as a slugger, a “take one to land one” type. When he does box, he says, people think something has gone wrong and he’s losing.

He said: “I can box and I can show that, but every time I do that they think things are against me.”

Sam gave a near flawless display of box fighting at the Excelsior.

Velazquez (11st 4lbs) – an Argentinian who lost for the 20th time in 25 fights – wasn’t in Eggington’s league but made up for the gulf in class through courage. The 29-year-old is a very tough man who has only failed to hear the final bell on one occasion.

Eggington (11st 5lbs) hit him hard to head and body, but couldn’t budge him.

From the get-go, Sam drilled home hard jabs, expertly slipped what came back and detonated left hooks.

In the second, he buried a right into Velazquez’ body, then turned the shot into an uppercut.

The visitor received the full Eggington repertoire. It was violence on a scientific level.

He did connect with a right on the bell to end the third. Apart from that, he was systematically worked over to head and body.

Eggington said: “You get really tough men. He took a lot to the head and body and never stopped coming.”

Sam is still in the mix for big fights and big paydays.

He added: “I don’t really follow the boxing, I just love to box. I love my job and as long as I can do it, I’ll do it.”

I met Velazquez at the bar afterwards, his featured heavily marked. He was attempting to order a can of Fanta – I later learned – through sign language, which is no easy task.

He failed to make an impression there, too.