You might have missed it, but Sam Eggington will attempt to become a two-weight European champion on Friday night.

He will fight an accomplished German amateur live on terrestrial television and is all but guaranteed to provide his usual measure of excitement.

You won’t see any clickbait headlines promoting the fight and boxing’s travelling caravan of mobile phone carrying videographers may be thinner than usual in Telford.

Eggington (34-8, 20 KOs) is taken for granted. For close to a decade, the 30-year-old has been one of British boxing’s most entertaining fighters but – more than that – he is one of its most accomplished. There have been good nights and bad but Eggington has been boxing at title level since he won a Prizefighter tournament back in 2014. Despite his resume, he is rarely included in any conversations regarding Britain’s high profile crop of 147 and 154-pounders.

If he beats Abass Baraou and adds the EBU super welterweight title to the welterweight belt he won back in 2017, Eggington should become too hard to ignore but this is a quality fight that has flown under the radar.

Maybe he should kick up a fuss at the final press conference or call out Conor Benn on instagram.

“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,” Eggington told

“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.”

Eggington seems to have been around forever. He turned professional back in 2012 and it is an eye-opening seven years since he concluded a 12-month purple patch that saw him beat Bradley Skeete and Frankie Gavin by stopping Paulie Malignaggi at the O2 Arena.

Considering that he is still competing at such a high level after a long, hard career you would think that Eggington spent his youth camped in the gym, bouncing from fight to fight and obsessing over every aspect of his training and career. That isn’t the case at all. Boxing remains a way to pay the bills but for a long time, that’s all it was. 

Eggington isn’t the type to disappear on a three-month long victory lap of the local bars and nightclubs after every win but until relatively recently, he would clock in on time for training but rarely volunteer for overtime.

“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.”

Winning the European title is a major achievement. Winning European belts at two different weights would allow Eggington’s entrance to a pretty exclusive club. It would also open up the door to some major nights. 

As is his way, Eggington hasn’t spent too much time thinking about that. He also hasn’t spent too much time worrying about Baraou, who  looks like providing him with a pretty complex puzzle to solve. In 2017 the 29-year-old won a European amateur title and also claimed a bronze medal at the world championships. After spending time training with Adam Booth in England, he has spent the past five months working with Jorge Rubio in Miami. 

On Friday night, Eggington will pack his bag and make his way to the Telford international Centre. He will put his absolute all into the fight and then – win or lose – pack his bags again and set off home. 

“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.

“This kid seems up for it. His promoters [Wasserman] have given me enough time to get ready. There are little things promoters can do to get one over on you but these haven’t. They’ve given me time and everything I needed.

“Whether this kid is looking for an easy touch, I don’t know. We’ll see.”