SE: I think the best thing is when the first phone call… John will ring and he’ll be like, ‘Listen, I just had to phone you. They want you to fight, blah, blah,’ or ‘this is up for grabs,’ or ‘you’ve been made mandatory.’ That first realisation that there’s a fight, not even at the weigh-in or the press conference or even before the fight, getting your hands wrapped… That first phone call, and that first jitter you get, it’s a hard feeling to mimic. You know someone’s going through hell and back to do a job on you and you’re always having them thoughts, ‘Am I going to turn up fitter than him?’ ‘Is he better than me?’ Even if you know you’re better than him, it doesn’t matter who you’re fighting. You could be doing a six rounder against, I don’t know, a foreign bin man. It doesn’t matter. You’re still having them thoughts in your head thinking, ‘Do you reckon he could turn up [and perform]?’ ‘I know he’s a journeyman, but what if he’s coming to win this one?’ It’s them thoughts that you miss, because again, nothing can mimic it, nothing.
Sam Eggington and the plan that went ‘tits up’ straight away
