Welterweight Sam Eggington (19-3, 11 KOs) handed former 147lb world title challenger Frankie Gavin (23-3, 14 KOs) his third loss of his career in stopping him in the 8th round on Saturday night at the Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham. The 23-year-old Eggington unloaded on Gavin with body shots in the 8th round to hurt him.
Eggington then poured I on with a flurry of shots that led to the fight being halted. Gavin was dropped twice in the fight, and he couldn’t handle the body shots from Eggington. The victory for Eggington won him the World Boxing Council International 147lb title.
After the fight, Gavin stubbornly insisted that he wouldn’t be retiring from the sport despite suffering his third loss of his career. Gavin previously was beaten by IF welterweight champion Kell Brook and Leonard Bundu.
Gavin looked good at times while fighting on the outside and picking Eggington off with pinpoint shots. The problem that Gavin had was Eggington kept coming forward, hitting Gavin with head and body shots. The body shots were especially brutal for Gavin, because he couldn’t take those nearly as well.
In the 3rd round, Eggington dropped Gavin with a right hand. Gavin looked OK after the knockdown, and fired back with a lot of hard shots of his own, but Eggington was getting the better of the action. Gavin should have thought twice in standing up to the younger Eggington, because he didn’t have the youth or the punch resistance to stand and war with the younger fighter.
Gavin used his boxing skills in the 4th round to pick Eggington off with jabs and pot shots. It was good for Gavin. It was a much better effort from Gavin in that round, as he fought smart rather than looking to go to war.
Gavin continued to look good in the 5th round, but he was still taking a lot of shots for an aging fighter, and it was clear that he was going to wear down eventually.
In the 6th, Eggington pressured Gavin and teed off on him while he was against the ropes. Gavin was given a standing eight count after getting hurt by some heavy shots to the head and body.
In the 8th round, Eggington teed off on Gavin with heavy shots after backing him against the ropes. The referee then halted the fight as Gavin went down from the sheer number of heavy shots.
“I want to give props to Frankie because I didn’t think he had it in him,” said Eggington to Sky Sports after the fight.
Gavin said he wasn’t going to retire after the fight despite his knockout loss.
“I didn’t realize how big he was. I want to do it again! I showed people I’m not just a little boxer who runs off, I showed I can have a fight,” said Gavin to Sky Sports.
***
In other boxing results on the card, 2012 Olympian Anthony Ogogo (11-1, 7 KOs) tasted defeat for the first time in his career in losing to Craig Cunningham (17-1, 4 KOs) by an eighth round knockout. Ogogo was knocked down in the 2nd from a right hook by Cunningham. Ogogo’s trainer Ton Sims stopped the fight during the 8th. It’s unclear why he stopped the contest, because Ogogo didn’t look hurt. He just looked tired and confused. He didn’t know how to handle the shots from the southpaw Cunningham. It seems that Ogogo wasn’t as good a fighter as many boxing fans thought he was.