'I knew I couldn't do it again' - Boxing hero Sam Eggington opens up on retirement and the future

Sat on his stool between rounds, the voice of trainer Jon Pegg ringing in his ear through the din of a 2,500-strong crowd at Wolverhampton Civic Hall, his mind kept returning to one thing.

“I was just thinking: ‘I can’t do this again’,” says Eggington.

A fortnight on and just over a week after publicly announcing his retirement from professional boxing after 14 years, 46 fights, nearly 300 rounds and too many titles to be listed here, the Stourbridge star remains - in his words - “gutted” by the defeat.

But he also acknowledges the 10th round stoppage, at the point he was ahead on two of the judges’ scorecards, might also have been a blessing.

“If I’d have got through and won, I’d have been back in the gym now, dreading and pushing through to the next one,” he says.

“I mean, no-one quits on a win, do they?”

There was a time when you wondered if Eggington would ever stop.

Written off more than once in recent years, the former British, European and world champion kept going, kept on winning fights no-one expected, kept on threatening to deliver one last, glorious hurrah.

Those closest to the 32-year-old, however, had noticed a change in the build-up to the Walker fight.

“All through my career, I was always solid through camp, training Sunday to Friday, twice a day, every week, without fail,” he says.

“But then in this camp, I was saying to Jon: ‘Maybe I need the full weekend off’.

“He’d reply we needed to do bag and bars, so then it is: ‘Well, maybe I need a couple of nights off’.”

Eggington recalls his long-time partner, Charlotte, remarking how he was round the house far more.“She said to me after the fight: ‘You did have more time off than normal’. Once she started noticing, that is it!” he smiles.

“Don’t get me wrong, I was fit as a fiddle. But the fact I was even asking for the time off? That was enough.

“I didn’t have the same get-up and go, the same want, I suppose.”

That feeling, Eggington believes, showed in his performance, not that anyone watching could have noticed.

For six rounds he had rarely looked better as he threatened to upset the odds and disrupt the rise of Walker, who now stands on the brink of a world title shot.

The bout, one of the biggest in the region for decades, was among the most brutal you will ever witness, more than living up to the hype.

Yet deep down, for Eggington, something was missing.

“Mentally, I am not as nasty and as vicious and courageous as I used to be,” he says.

“I want to be. If you ask me what I am going to do, I am going to tell you I am going to go in there and tear things up, like I used to.

“But subconsciously, my body just doesn’t want to. When you are in there, you can’t force it.

“The Walker fight, two years ago, would have been an absolute tear-up, from start to finish. That’s still what I want. But sometimes my body doesn’t.”

Having accepted this fact, the next step was obvious, yet hard to take.

Even now, quite understandably, you sense Eggington is still trying to take it all in.

Much as the decision feels right, it is still sudden. There has never been a plan for what happens next.

“People are asking me what I’ll do now?” he says. “I don’t think they believe me when I say I honestly don’t know.

“I have never planned for anything after it because all I wanted to do was boxing, that was it.

“I always said the moment I started planning, was when I wasn’t in it 100 per cent.

“I’ve made the decision to retire now because it was for the best. I wasn’t planning this before the Walker fight. All I was planning was to go out there and win.”Recent days, at least, have provided some time for reflection on his remarkable journey and a story which, no matter how many times it is repeated, will never get boring.

A promising amateur with Warley ABC, Eggington famously turned pro aged just 18 after being made redundant from his job as a forklift truck driver.

“I really probably go back and thank that guy,” he smiles now.

Initially, his ambition stretched no further than being a journeyman, boxing every other week for pay to help raise his then baby son, Layton.

On his first visit to Pegg’s Eastside boxing gym in Birmingham, he told the trainer who would be with him every step of the way he could: “Chuck him on the road every week.”

Quickly, however, it became clear Eggington’s talent was far too good for only that. His final record now ranks among the region’s best-ever boxers.

Of Eggington’s 46 fights, an incredible 27 were over 10 or 12 round distance, many of them with titles on the line. Two of his contests were later named fight of the year by British boxing’s board of control. The very epitome of a fan favourite, Eggington’s all-action style rarely failed to deliver in the entertainment stakes.

“I could never have any regrets with how things turned out, that would be impossible,” the now father-of-three says. “I had the best team, the best people. I won every belt, from area to world. I went all the way through it.”

Only at this point, when it is finished, is he beginning to appreciate the scale of his achievement.

“I guess, if I had one wish, it would be that I had lived in the moment a bit more,” he says.

“I’ve always said it was just a job and that was exactly how I treated it.

“Looking back now, when I was winning the British, Commonwealth and European titles, I didn’t really know what it meant, the magnitude of it.

“On the other hand, maybe that helped. I just went out and did my job. I was never nervous, no matter how big the arena.

“Maybe if I had really thought about it, I’d have been going into the ring at the O2 Arena to fight Paulie Malignaggi probably s*****g myself, saying: ‘I need to win. I need to do this’.

“As it was I went in against a two-time world champion, on pay-per-view, boxed him, beat him and 15 minutes later I was on the motorway heading home.”

These are the thoughts in Eggington’s head as he considers his next move.

A move into punditry seems highly unlikely. Eggington could never be accused of being media unfriendly - this interview wouldn’t be happening if that was the case. But he is also the fighter who once claimed he would happily have boxed his entire career in an empty room.

Coaching has also been quickly ruled out.

“That’s not me!” he laughs. “I’m not that guy. If you were boxing someone and asked me to go and watch them, I wouldn’t be able to tell you what to do.

“The fact I was so gung-ho in my own boxing is why I needed a coach in the first place!”

Pegg will always remain a close friend. The longevity of their partnership is another special and rare element of Eggington’s story.

“Loyalty is rare, these days,” he says. “But I never saw the reason to move.

“Boxing is a simple game. You have two arms, two legs. You either listen to what you are being told, or you don’t.

“I genuinely believe Jon and his team, they know the game.

“Every loss I had was because someone was either better than me, or because I got caught with the shot I shouldn’t have.”

One thing is for certain. While Eggington might be something of a reluctant retiree, there will be no encore.

“I could carry on. I probably could,” he says. “But 12 months from now, I will be doing a six rounder, bottom of the bill, against a young kid who just wants to pepper me until I have lost everything.

“It just seems pointless. I don’t need to tarnish the memories, taking a few fights for a bit of change. Carrying on for no reason, that makes no sense.”

Thoughts return to those final moments at The Civic, back on home turf in the region for which he so long flew the flag.

“Two years ago, I would have bounced back from that shot that stopped me. I have no doubt,” he says. “I would have shrugged it off.

“That told me something. The way I box, if I can’t take those shots any longer, I have to stop boxing.

“It is sad and it is hard to deal with but it is something I need to do, for everyone’s sake.”