SAM EGGINGTON is one of Britain’s bravest boxers – but he’s not even the toughest man around the family dinner table.
Aged 30, the Smethwick Savage has a throwback fighting CV to be hugely proud of, having shared the ring with the likes of Bradley Skeete, Frankie Gavin, Paulie Malignaggi and Liam Smith and refusing to be in an easy or unexciting fight.
But the former British welterweight champ would rather boast about brother Daniel, 32, an extreme explorer who has dared to trek around the planet’s least charted territories in remote spots around Indonesia, Costa Rica, the Darien Gap and Guyana.
The typically humble Brummie said: “I find it weird that people want to interview me about doing a sport millions of people around the world do every day, when my brother is doing something that only a few people in history have ever done.
“I’m in a great gym, I box on TV, people cheer me on and I get paid for it. My brother goes to the deepest darkest places left on earth, living with tribes, risking his life because he loves animals and adventure.
“Barring a couple of great sponsors – who help keep his family at home almost calm – he does it at all his own cost.
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“He comes back home and works so hard so he can get back to remote regions and he does it with the minimum of help just from local governments and guides.
“He makes what I do look like an absolute doddle, people should be writing articles and watching documentaries about him, not me.
“People even rave about the bloke off Eastenders – Grant Mitchell – going to dangerous foreign countries, but he travels with about 15 bodyguards and a TV crew, while my brother is out there with a laptop and a drone.
“Right now I am getting ready for 12 rounds on Channel 5, he is spending three months traversing the Rio Negro, through uncharted parts of Colombia, Brazil and Venezuela, that’s proper actual danger.”
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Eggington’s ruthless reluctance to bite his tongue is another trait that marks him out as an old-school fighter.
He was brought in to lose against Southampton’s 20-0 Joe Pigford last May at his nearby Vitality Stadium in Bournemouth.
But – once again – he upset the applecart and the bookies by scoring a longshot win for the underdog on the road.
It should have sparked his umpteenth resurgence for the 34-8 banger but instead he has spent almost a year on the sidelines waiting for a fight that has finally come around this Friday, against another favourite in Abass Baraou, on Channel 5.
“I was born in the wrong era,” he explains perfectly.
“I’m not interested in protecting my record, social media or sucking up to people, I just want to fight.
“I should have been around in the 1950s when everybody fought everyone and losing in a great fight wasn’t something to be ashamed of.
“These days fighters are terrified of losing and more worried about their followers than their fights.
“My last win was great, the outsider again fighting in my opponent’s backyard and we sprung the upset again.
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“It should have sparked another title run but instead I’ve had to wait around while other people make silly demands and price themselves out of fights.
“No one can ever say I ever used any excuse to avoid a fight, I’m ready to go at 4pm when it’s still light outside or 1 in the morning when the cleaners have already started sweeping up, stick me on the free YouTube stream before the TV section, I couldn’t care less, I just want to fight.”
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
