Matt Maher: Conah Walker v Sam Eggington is a fight between two heroes of Midlands boxing

There’s no question about the biggest boxing story of the week.

After years of will they, won’t they and too many postponements to keep count, Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury have finally agreed a deal to fight each other.

“Signed, sealed, delivered,” declared Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn. Even Royal Mail would blush.

This being Joshua-Fury they have not yet confirmed a date or venue and this being boxing, no-one will actually believe the fight is going to happen until both are actually in the ring getting the referee’s instructions.

But after all the waiting, the two biggest names in British boxing are closer than ever to throwing some punches towards each other.

The shame is the contest will happen years after it should have done, with both on the downslope of their careers and no world title on the line.

It could still be a great fight. It won’t be as great as it should have been.

What a pity they aren’t all so easy to organise as Conah Walker’s clash with Sam Eggington this Saturday.

Drawing a direct comparison between the Midlands’ pair and Joshua-Fury is in many ways unfair. The money involved isn’t even in the same galaxy.

But in a sport where you can’t help but stay cynical, there is undoubtedly something refreshing about the biggest fight this region has seen for decades effectively being arranged over the course of a brief text message exchange between the two boxers.

It would be something of a stretch to call Walker and Eggington kindred spirits. They are different people, who have shared different journeys.

What does link them is a willingness to back their ability, a fearlessness which has seen their respective careers ascend to heights few believed possible at the start.

Eggington famously turned professional aged just 19 as he feared being made redundant from his job as a forklift truck driver.

Back then, the former Warley amateur only had designs on being a journeyman, fighting once a month to help pay the bills with no particular designs on stardom.

And yet his talent, nurtured by the hugely under-rated and overlooked Jon Pegg, who remains in his corner to this day, proved far too good for that.

Within a year, he was Midlands Area welterweight champion, winning the British crown another two years later.

There followed a European belt and even, briefly, the IBO world title in a career spent largely in arenas.

Twice Eggington has been in fights named the best of the year by British boxing’s Board of Control. Of his 45 fights to date, 26 have been at 10 or 12 round distance. An old and perhaps tired joke it might be but if you looked up “warrior” in the dictionary, it would be no surprise to see Eggington’s picture there.

Walker’s story is at least equally remarkable. His is a life which, without boxing, might have turned out very differently.

“This sport saved me,” he told the Express & Star, during a 2024 interview in which he also disclosed, for the first time publicly, how he spent a portion of his teenage years in a detention centre.

In that same piece, Walker also expressed hope boxing could one day enable him to afford a home in the country and send his young son to private school.

These days the dream feels that much closer. Since stunning Cyrus Pattinson in August 2023, Walker has been on one of the best runs in British boxing, regularly rising to challenges many pundits believed beyond him.

Accepting a short notice call to face reigning British champion Harry Scarff, he snatched the Lonsdale belt with a brutal 11th round knockout.

Then, last December, he beat Olympic silver medallist Pat McCormack by knocking him out of the ring in the 12th round of their contest in Monte Carlo. Just when you think it can’t get any better for Walker, it does.

The only blemish on his record since beating Pattinson is a controversial points defeat to Lewis Crocker. A re-match with the Northern Irishman, who now holds the IBF world crown, was good as agreed earlier this year before collapsing at the 11th hour.

That has made time and space for the showdown with Eggington. What was initially disappointing for Walker, has been good for fight fans both in the Midlands and the wider sport.

There’s no doubt, however, that for a boxer who rightly proclaims himself the region’s “man of the moment” Saturday carries significant risk.

Walker is the younger man and theoretically, the fresher, having been involved in half as many fights and boxed half as many rounds.

But there are question marks over how he might fare with the step up to super welterweight. Eggington, who insiders say has looked better than ever in sparring, is the physically bigger man by a decent margin. While the bookmakers have Walker as clear favourite, many believe the fight will be much closer. The one thing everyone is agreed upon, is it should be a classic.

During Thursday’s press conference, where the mutual respect between the pair was obvious, Eggington remarked how they would likely “kick back with a beer” when the fighting was done.

That image summed it up better than most. In a sport where substance will always trump style, you can’t get more real than Walker and Eggington. Whoever emerges victorious on Saturday, these are both boxers for the region to celebrate.