Sam Eggington thanks fans after title is lost

The 28-year-old Stourbridge boxer was beaten on majority decision at the Newcastle Entertainment Centre on Saturday, in the first defence of the belt he won in June.

Irish-born Hogan, who now lives in Australia, was awarded the contest 116-112 on two of the judges’ scorecards, while the other scored it a draw.

Eggington, who for the first time in his 40-fight professional career was without trainer Jon Pegg in his corner for a bout 10,000 miles from home, later posted a message on social media which read: “Not my night, an experience that will be hard to forget for good and bad reasons.

“Thanks for all the support, good luck, well done messages all appreciated!”

Eggington has never made any secret of his desire to win money, rather than titles, yet the loss of the IBO belt is a serious blow to chasing both in the remainder of his career.

An all-action style means he will always have fans but for now it is back to the drawing board, with this defeat ending a four-fight winning streak.

It was only the second time he has fought outside the UK and it will almost certainly be the last.

For Hogan, by contrast, this was a long-awaited triumph as he became a world champion at the fourth time of asking.

The 37-year-old, who grew up in Kildare before moving Down Under for work, was undoubtedly the crowd favourite.

After a cagey opening, Eggington suffered a cut on the top of his head from an accidental clash of heads in the third round.

As the fight wore on it was Hogan who then started to get on top in the bout as it appeared increasingly likely Eggington would need a stoppage.

Instead it was the home fighter who landed a number of big punches in the 11th round and by the time he landed a big right-hand seconds before the final bell, it was clear who was the victor.

“This is surreal for me,” an emotional Hogan said. “Me winning this, I think, is a sign for everybody to just keep going, keep persisting and just keep believing and you can do it. One hundred per cent.”

Eggington’s pre-fight admission he had not watched Hogan in action drew some raised eyebrows and criticism from the commentary team on Fox Sports Australia, who broadcast the bout.

Asked about his own tactics in taking victory, Hogan explained: “I like to break it up a bit and have people guessing, and I think I did that for the most part.

“Sam just wanted to get in but he didn’t have the movement that I have, I found that from the start. But as much as I wanted to go first and they were good instructions, I really had to marry that in.

“I had to be very careful of that. I had to just keep breaking it and keep getting little wins here and there, wherever I could get them. Even on the inside I was getting some good wins.”