Abass Baraou took the vacant European super welterweight title, and a WBA title eliminator, as the German took a pulsating majority decision win against Sam Eggington at the Telford International Centre on Friday.
Eggington (34-9, 20 KOs) was bidding to become European champion at a second weight, and had been in many fan-friendly fights, his last a fifth round stoppage of Joe Pigford last May. Baraou (15-1, 9 KOs) was on a five-fight winning streak since a sole split decision to Jack Culcay in August 2020.
It was a tentative start, but the action soon warmed up, with both men winging in punches in, in an intense ending to the opening round.
After a close second frame, Baraou landed with a heavy left in the third, and he was more than happy to fight fire with fire, and the 29-year-old cranked up the pressure in the fifth, digging in hard blows to the Midlander.
Rounds were difficult to score, but Baraou was shading them with the cleaner work and he began to turn the screw, with the ninth seeing a sustained onslaught that wobbled 30-year-old.
The visitor was keeping ’The Savage’ under constant pressure, and the contest was close to being halted in the penultimate round, but Eggington kept coming back, although his punches were lacking purchase as his energy drained.
It looked as though Eggington would need a strong final round at least, and the two went toe-to-toe to the very last second, with the contest going to the scorecards.
One judge returned a verdict of 114-114, but was overruled by scores of 117-111 and 117-112 that crowned Baraou the new champion.
You are looking at the European champ, what a man & what a journey @BaraouAbass 👑 pic.twitter.com/sHFoIZ1ekW
— Harlem Eubank🥋 (@HarlemEubank) March 1, 2024
Harris back to winning ways
At heavyweight, Matty Harris won every round of four against Amine Boucetta (8-11).
Harris (6-1, 4 KOs) suffered a shock loss to Kostiantyn Dovbyshchenko last time out, but got his career back on track, in his first fight under new trainer Peter Fury.
Dascalu wins Southern Area belt
The vacant Southern Area super middleweight title was claimed by Andrei Dascalu (10-0, 3 KOs), as he stopped Joe Jackson Brown (7-1, 4 KOs) inside the first 90 seconds of their meeting.
Remaining Undercard
Highly rated Kazakh, Sultan Zaurbek (17-0, 12 KOs) had a late change in opposition, but won all eight rounds at lightweight against Victor Julio (17-11, 9 KOs).
In six rounders, Dan Toward (3-0, 2 KOs) forced Frank Madsen (8-8, 4 KOs) to retire ahead of the final round of their super welterweight contest.
Kaisee Benjamin (18-3-1, 6 KOs) won all six rounds at welterweight against Berman Sanchez (30-52-4, 22 KOs), and Ryan Kelly (19-4, 8 KOs) had to get off the deck in the final round, before taking a 57-55 verdict against Ioan Alexandru Lutic (2-7, 2 KOs) at middleweight.
Gully Powar (8-0, 1 KO) won all six frames at super featherweight against Angelo Turco (8-34-3, 3 KOs), and welterweight prospect Elliot Whale (9-0, 5 KOs) stopped Fernando Mosquera (6-16, 3 KOs) in two rounds.
Tom Welland (3-0, 2 KOs) stopped Esteban Troetsch (1-3-1, 1 KO) in the second round of their featherweight affair.
