I’m a former boxing world champion – but I used to live a very different life as a forklift driver

SAM EGGINGTON fights Abbas Baraou tonight as he looks to win the European light middleweight title.

The Birmingham-born fighter has never been afraid to take a fight and his 34-8 record is testament to that.

In an interview with in the lead-up to the Baraou bout, he revealed that he only ever got into boxing to earn some money on the side while working a factory job operating forklift trucks.

Eggington said: "I had my son at 17 and I was a forklift driver, and there were rumours that I was going to get made redundant, last in, first out, sort of thing.

"And my mate at the time, Craig Cunningham, he was turning professional, and I heard this thing about journeymen. They box every week, they get paid every week, win, lose or draw.

"I was like 'Craig, give your manager a ring, I'll do that', and that’s when it started. I won the Midlands Area title and then a few sponsors came in and I thought I could probably make this my job. 

"As the sponsors came in, I put more into training which was giving me more confidence to say I’m going to be a champion instead of a journeyman.

"I was sparring good kids as well, and that didn’t resonate to me until my coach was telling me these things. So again, a few sponsors came in, I won the Area title and it snowballed from there."

Despite starting with intentions of being a journeyman, Eggington's career soon saw him fight the likes of former two-weight world champion Paulie Malignaggi, and Frankie Gavin.

He also won the IBO super-welterweight belt two years ago.

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His entertaining style saw him win back-to-back fight of the year titles in 2020 and 2021 for his bouts with Ted Cheeseman and Bilel Jkitou.

Eggington lost to Cheeseman on points before being on the right end of a close-call against Jkitou in two classic fights.

Talking about his title fight with Baraou, the 30-year-old said: "I don’t look at much of him or what he’s done. I leave that to the team to tell me what I should do off it. 

"If he comes for a fire-fight then I’m all there for that. If he wants to box and move then I’ll negotiate that."

Eggington was also defiant when asked about the prospect of retirement.

Despite only being 30, he has now fought over 40 times, leading to many speculating that he won't stay in the fight game for much longer but he said: "It irritates me [The prospect of retirement].

"I’m 30, I’m in my prime. Yes, I’ve had a lot of fights, I’ve been here a lot of years, but any other 30-year-old, no one is asking about retiring. No one is asking how much they’ve got left. 

"I just need people to have that perception of me that "Sam’s still here". He has had a long career and people have enjoyed it, but he’s still here the same way he was when he was 25."