On a weekend decorated by boxing superstars, the best fight to occur was surely crafted in the West Midlands – a humble county in the heart of England – when Conah Walker rebounded from an early shellacking to stop Sam Eggington in the 10th round.
The bearded Eggington has always been quite the sight. Think of that wiry maniac who rips off his T-shirt in the bar and then chins every bloke who’s stupid enough to look in his direction, and you get the idea. Eggington, in short, has long been Britain’s most reliable thrill-seeker. Yet that thirst for a slugfest, logic dictated, would one day put an end to his ability to swallow punches.
Many felt that the in-form Walker, who, like his rival, thrives in the thick of a tear-up, might be the fighter to convince Eggington that enough is enough.
But Eggington can box, too. He can, when in the mood, pump out his jab and keep things tidy from a safe distance. He did this Saturday night, in fact. But he nearly always gets drawn in. This happened Saturday night, too.
After outboxing the 30-year-old Walker in the opening round, accurately spearing his jab and following with his right, he found the call of warfare too much to resist in the second. All it took was a swiping counter from Walker, and Eggington, his senses suddenly enlivened, stepped inside – immediately giving up his advantage in reach – to let rip. And so it began.
Eggington bossed the third; his right uppercut, in particular, couldn’t miss. Walker, caught unaware, started to realize the extent of the warrior inside the man with whom he was sharing a ring. What followed was a titanic battle of wills, a hellacious exhibition of violence.
Walker, from Wolverhampton, where the fight was staged, had beforehand promised not to lose “on his patch." But this was a fierce local derby, with Eggington hailing from Stourbridge, a town less than 10 miles down the road from the Civic Hall in which they battled.
Eggington, 32, bossed the fourth, but Walker, fighting like a Sam Eggington tribute act, refused to take a backward step. The younger man battled back in the fifth. A body shot hurt Eggington before the contextual veteran regained control in the next. He even teased making things easier in the seventh – simple one-twos were poking Walker off balance – but a meeting between these two was never destined to be so polite.
By the eighth, Eggington, with his war-torn face bearing new wounds, looked to be tiring. He instinctively retreated to the ropes. Walker followed, and furious exchanges were punctuated by a roaring up-and-under that sent Eggington to the mat. It looked like the end. Perhaps, given all that came before in Eggington’s 36-10 (20 KOs) career, it should have been.
A turnaround was threatened in the ninth, but Walker – who will one day find the well dry himself – would not be denied. The action was breathtaking and becoming increasingly hard to watch as Eggington, years of combat stealing his ability to retaliate, started to sag. A brutal five-punch attack from Walker, which started with a right hook and ended with the same punch from his left, almost rendered Eggington unconscious, but, typically, he was still standing. At 1:59 of the 10th round, the referee at last stopped the fight.
“He outdone me this time, what more can I say?” Eggington said afterwards.
“I don’t know where I go from here. Fingers crossed, I get some more opportunities, but if I don’t, we’ll have to see what happens.”
“I’ve looked up to this man my whole career,” Walker, 18-3-1 (9 KOs), said in victory. “I’ve tried to emulate his style; he’s shown me you can win every fight and do anything that you put your fucking mind to.
“He was a great dance partner.”
He then turned his attention to another countryman.
“Conor Benn, you think you’re the man in England? Come and prove it then, big boy. Come and fucking prove it.”
Indeed.
On the undercard, the feel-good story that seems to be building for 38-year-old Bilal Fawaz produced its latest chapter when he moved to 12-1-1 (4 KOs) to retain his British and Commonwealth junior middleweight titles for the first time. Ryan Kelly, 20-7-1 (8 KOs), was brave but ultimately outclassed as Fawaz, enjoying every moment – perhaps to a fault, given the premature showboating on display – eventually forced the referee to step in at the end of the ninth round.
Matt Christie, a lifelong fight fan, has worked in boxing for more than 20 years. He left Boxing News in 2024 after 14 years, nine of which were spent as editor-in-chief. Before that, he was the producer of weekly boxing show “KOTV.” Now the co-host of ”The Opening Bell” podcast and regularly used by Sky Sports in the UK as a pundit, Matt was named as the Specialist Correspondent of the Year at the prestigious Sports Journalism Awards in 2021, which was the seventh SJA Award he accepted during his stint in the hot seat at Boxing News. The following year, he was inducted into the British Boxing Hall of Fame. He is a member of the BWAA and has been honored several times in their annual writing awards.
