The Fight
Abass Baraou gets a wide-decision against Sam Eggington, in an action-packed barn-burner of a fight at the Telford International Centre.
Firstly, Baraou got straight to action; he marched forward to Eggington, using head-movement to get inside, to deliver power-punches in combination.
The second round was quieter for Baraou, and I think Eggington managed to take this round due to more activity.
Baraou ups the pace again in the 3rd and 4th rounds, landing his signature punches on the inside with Eggington on the ropes.
His most prominent punches, were his left-hook to the body, and his right-straight to the head, after slipping Eggington’s shots.
The fight turned into a phone-booth fight from the mid-rounds onwards, both trading on the inside.
Eggington showed his toughness in this fight; he wasn’t able to slip many shots, but the shots he didn’t block, he took surprisingly well.
Baraou tried to get the finish in the 9th-round, Eggington weathered the storm, and tried to fight back at the end of the round, biding himself time.
Eggington sustained a cut around the championship rounds, his cut-man certainly earned his pay, as he did a great job of controlling the bleeding.
The cut was in a very bad position, on the eye-lid by the brow-ridge, a very sensitive position and the cut had the potential to result in a stoppage.
The conditioning from both fighters was excellent, especially from Baraou, who maintained a great pace throughout the fight.
What’s next for Abass Baraou?
Finally, what is next for Abass Baraou, he was dropped from the WBC rankings, but is ranked #4 with the WBA (please refer to Box.live for more information on this).
This should set him up with fights against Magomed Kurbanov, Sebastien Fundora, Virgil Ortiz Jr, James Metcalf and Josh Kelly etc.
Eggington is roughly around the top-15, but I don’t think he is in position to secure himself with fights up the rankings
I had made the following public prediction for this fight, in a post on X (formerly Twitter):
A late post, but I’m going with Abass Baraou by decision, in his fight against Sam Eggington.
— LMGBoxFit (@LMGBoxFit) March 1, 2024
Please refer to my picks and data on prediction here
Image source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EdQFzeERc4