Abass Baraou (15-1, 9 KOs) scooped up the biggest trophy of his boxing journey in good ol’ Telford, outsmarting the once-celebrated Sam Eggington (34-9, 20 KOs) – yeah, the guy with all those British, Commonwealth, and European welterweight belts in his attic – to grab the shiny EBU super welterweight belt. Eggington’s now at a bit of a pickle, racking up his ninth “oops” moment in the ring, as his dream of strutting around as a two-division European champ got a bit derailed.
Right out of the gate, it was more like a polite introduction than a fight, with both gents exchanging jabs like they were at a tea party until Baraou decided it was time to crash the party and back Eggington into a corner to give him a taste of some real action.
Round two had Baraou strutting in like he owned the place, swatting away Eggington’s jabs like annoying flies and getting him cornered again for a nice little chat to the body. Eggington tried a bit of a switcheroo, pinning Baraou for a hot second, probably just to show he wasn’t there just to make up the numbers.
Come round three, and Eggington’s mouthpiece decided it had seen enough and took a flying leap out of his mouth, courtesy of a Baraou right hook. Round four? More of the same, with Baraou playing matador to Eggington’s bull.
By round five, Eggington found himself playing pinball in the corner, with Baraou flipping between body and head shots, while Eggington’s face started looking like a ripe tomato. Baraou kept dancing around, slipping and sliding through Eggington’s desperate comebacks like he was dodging raindrops.
Round six was a bit of a snoozer, with Baraou’s left hook making a brief cameo to send a spray from Eggington’s head, but then he decided to turn up the heat in the seventh with a five-punch serenade that left Eggington wondering what day it was.
Eggington, bless his heart, tried to make the eighth his, getting all up in Baraou’s grill in what must have felt like a minor victory. But Baraou wasn’t having any of it, coming back in the ninth to drop a right hook that had the ref squinting at Eggington, probably checking if he was still in the same postcode.
The tenth round was a bit of a yawn until Baraou decided to wake everyone up, and by the end of it, Eggington was grinning like he’d just remembered a funny joke, probably not the reaction you’d expect from someone whose head just did a 360.
Baraou kept the pressure up in the final rounds, with Eggington looking more like a practice bag than a fighter, barely hanging on as Baraou painted a masterpiece on his face.
By the time the final bell rang and they hugged it out (because why not?), it was clear Baraou was taking home the gold. The judges’ scorecards were a bit of a mixed bag, 117-111 and 117-112 and 114-114 but let’s face it, we all knew who the prom king was tonight.