Reflections – It takes two to Tango
BBN’s Scottish scribe Donald C Stewart celebrates two weekends of outstanding British battles, firstly in Birmingham, followed by Manchester
The last few weeks we have been spoilt domestically with fights. In Wolverhampton and Manchester questions have been asked and answers given. Whoever claimed boxing in the UK was struggling will have evidence aplenty that might not be the case – or at least it is a little more complex than they think.
Let’s start in Wolverhampton where Sam Eggington had his 10th professional loss. He was asked what this meant for him and he stuttered a little, coming to a tentative conclusion that he is not sure. Wolverhampton hosts more than boxing across the year, with Monmore Green part of the local sporting calendar, and greyhound racing betting is covered in a separate BBN guide.
Who can blame him?
You will hear the cliché over and over again, that at the age of 21, he went into a gym to become a journeyman. He felt he could earn a few pennies out of it and make a not too bad income that would allow him to put food on the table and a roof over his head for his young family. Trainer John Pegg watched him and realised that he couldn’t be a journeyman for one simple reason: Sam Eggington comes to win, and that has been his entire career.
As you looked once again at the battered face of ‘The Savage’ Eggington at the end of his fight with Conah Walker, you realised that this is a man who would run into walls to fight. He is a tremendous career boxer, a man who I have watched time and time and time again, rooting for him, hoping that he was going to come away with the win, and most of the time he did. The only time that I didn’t think that he was going to win or I didn’t want him to win was when he faced Paulie Malinaggi. I thought this might be the end of his career and the time had come for him to hang up his gloves, but jings, what a thing. Eggington gave us a fantastic event, an incredible performance, but more importantly, got the right result.
As I watched Eggington fold like a deck chair on Margate Beach against the ropes, when Walker unleashed yet another barrage into Sam’s ribcage, it was not sad to see, but you got the feeling that perhaps now this was it. There were many who, as they were praising Conah Walker, wanted to say something about Eggington.
We all know that Eddie Hearn’s father, Barry, has Eggington as his favourite fighter, and there’s plenty of reasons for that. During the beginning of the fight it looked as though Eggington was going to get the win, indeed a stoppage. But then as the tide turned, what happened was exceptional.
Out came Walker’s mettle and he decided that it was time to turn things around. And so, he did. You could see how Eggington was beginning to tire, then suddenly, in the ninth round, Eggington came back until in the tenth the punches that were going into Eggington’s body finally paid off.
The other story of Wolverhampton was that Bilal Fawaz retained his British and Commonwealth junior middleweight title for the first time against Ryan Kelly, who was outclassed.
Fawaz was raining in punch after punch after punch with very little coming back until eventually the referee had to step in. Kelly will have other opportunities, and there was no way he was going to beat Fawaz. Fawaz’s showboating is a little distasteful for some, but given the distaste that he should feel, despite the fact that he is a humble and yet very honest man, the British state has done him a massive disservice. Trafficked to the UK, abused within this country, rescued then fighting for this country, his adopted homeland, a place where he pays his taxes, he does his work, but he has been refused time and again the passport to become a British citizen. He is a contributor, member of his community, somebody who in the United Kingdom provides support to others.
But we won’t give him a passport. That means he cannot travel and the only way that he can get a European or a world title is if he can entice somebody to come to the UK to fight him and so his bordered prison is an island that he cannot leave.
We are a country which prides itself in being a place where people should be rewarded for hard effort and good work. Fawaz is the epitome of that and if there is not somebody out there who’s going to fast track the British and Commonwealth title holder then who is? The absurdity of a man who has won a Commonwealth title but due to the rules of the state upon whose empire the Commonwealth is based won’t allow him to travel in order to defend it in realms of the Commonwealth like Australia and New Zealand or Canada or elsewhere confounds all logic.
No matter how well he boxes you get the feeling that his greatest fight is longer than 12 rounds and one and we should all be supporting him to win.
Then we had Manchester. Zak Chelli changed his life, Mike Perez kept showing why he still boxes and Daniel Dubois did not quit. Two knockdowns and a stoppage win. Wardley showed great courage and much though I got annoyed at Malignaggi in the TalkSport coverage, calling Wardley a “one-trick” pony, I was fascinated by the huge courage that was shown by him. That was no trick.
There’s a rematch clause and Wardley is good at return matches – well he was when he rematched Frazer Clarke…
But Dubois, after the devastating defeats he has suffered, drew himself from the canvas, gave his corner a wink and took out Wardley in a brutal display which showed how hardy Wardley is. He never fell to the floor, took a knee or indeed a step backwards. It was a spectacle, worthy of Sam Eggington himself!
And so, three fights with narratives and stories that show British boxing is in pretty decent shape. Not reeling on the ropes but in rude health with a second wind, ready to show the new upstarts a thing or two. Mind you, they too have a few tricks up their sleeves we could do with seeing too…
