Sam Eggington aims to continue his good fortunes in his new favorite venue.
The always entertaining 28-year-old Brit moves back down to junior middleweight in hopes of picking up a regional title at the weight and extending his current three-fight win streak. The next step for the Smethwick-bred boxer comes in a scheduled 10-round bout with Poland’s Przemyslaw Zysk atop a BOXXER-promoted show Saturday evening on Sky Sports from Coventry Skydome in Coventry, England.
Eggington (31-7, 18KOs) weighed 153 pounds, his lightest weight in nearly four years and following his past two bouts taking place at middleweight. Zysk (18-0, 6KOs) clocked in right at the 154-pound divisional limt for his first career fight outside of his native Poland.
The fight is Eggington’s third in a row at Coventry Skydome, with his previous two appearances both resulting in points wins with a WBC regional middleweight title at stake. They come as part of a current three-fight win streak since a narrow points loss to Ted Cheeseman in their August 2020 slugfest that garnered consideration for the 2020 Fight of the Year.
Eggington bounced back with a sixth-round knockout of former title challenger Ashley Theophane in December 2020, his last bout at junior middleweight before moving up in weight. The feat was followed by a pair of decision victories over former junior middleweight titlist Carlos Molina and unbeaten French prospect Bilel Jkitou last year.
The show also features the much-anticipated pro debut of Karriss Artingstall, who claimed a Bronze medal for Great Britain in the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics last summer. Cheshire’s Artingstall checked in at a fighting fit 125 pounds for her scheduled six-round featherweight bout versus Lithuania’s Vaida Masiokaite (2-16-5, 1KO), who weighed 128 pounds.
Artingstall—a full-time gunner in Britain’s Royal Horse Artillery prior to turning pro—capped her stellar amateur career with three wins in Tokyo last summer, including a quarterfinal round split decision over Australia’s Skye Nicolson who is already 4-0 in her pro journey. The win guaranteed at least a Bronze medal for Artingstall, which was the case following her heartbreaking loss to Japan’s Sena Irie who went on to capture the Gold medal.
This weekend’s bout for the 27-year-old Artingstall comes just two weeks after her partner, Lauren Price—a 2020 Olympic Gold medalist for Great Britain as a middleweight—made her pro debut in six-round win over Iceland’s Valgerdur Gudstensdottir on June 11 at Wembley’s OVO Arena. Price and Artingstall signed with BOXXER together this past April.
Below are the weights for the rest of the undercard.
Adam Azim (4-0, 3KOs), Slough, Berkshire, 139 pounds vs. Anthony Loffet (8-1, 2KOs), Verviers, Belgium, 139 pounds—8 rounds, junior welterweight
Dylan Cheema (5-0, 1KO), Birmingham, 137 pounds vs. Stu Greener (4-8, 1KO), Devizes, Whitshire, 138 pounds—4 rounds, lightweight
River Wilson-Bent (12-0-1, 5KOs), Coventry, 166 pounds vs. Tyler Denny (13-2-3, 0KOs), Rowley Regis, West Midlands, 160 pounds—10 rounds, super middleweight
Cori Gibbs (16-0, 3KOs), Birmingham, 137 pounds vs. Carlos Perez (17-6-2, 2KOs), Sevilla, Spain, 138 pounds—4/6 rounds, lightweight
Shakiel Thompson (7-0, 5KOs), Sheffield, 160 pounds vs. Bartosz Glowacki (5-8-1, 4KOS), Chrzanow, Poland, 155 pounds—6 rounds, middleweight
Scott Forrest (1-0, 1KO), Edinburgh, Scotland, 201 pounds vs. Tony Visic (20-32-2, 5KOs), Split, Croatia, 200 pounds—4 rounds, cruiserweight
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox