There was a time when Lee Cutler would lace his boots, wrap his hands, and look around in awe and disbelief about what his life was and where it had taken him.
Originally from the small town of Verwood, in Hampshire, England, he moved to the coastal town of Poole – about 20 miles away – which is known for its attractive beaches but not for its boxing.
As a fledgling pro, Cutler had to go on the road, for fights, for sparring, for opportunities.
But in 2023 he joined the famed McGuigan’s Gym, former home to champions Carl Frampton, David Haye, George Groves, Josh Taylor, and countless others. Cutler trains there with Shane McGuigan’s No. 2, Josh Pritchard, a skilful former fighter who began coaching after his 5-0 career was cut short by changes on his brain scan.
Cutler is his star pupil, and together they train alongside McGuigan and his students including WBC lightweight champion Caroline Dubois, IBF and WBO featherweight champion Ellie Scotney, former light heavyweight world title challenger Craig Richards and unbeaten 140lbs prospect Adam Azim.
Also in the stable, importantly, is former WBO cruiserweight champion Chris Billam-Smith, who Cutler boxed with on the South Coast as amateurs. They are great friends, and now housemates in London as well as campmates in the gym, while both commute from their homes in Dorset, some 100 miles away.
When Cutler first joined McGuigan, he was not sure he belonged. There was a blemish on his record, and he had been hired by some of the country’s leading lights for sparring, banking rounds with the likes of Conor Benn and Chris Eubank.
It is surely what led to Cutler’s last opponent, Stephen McKenna, labelling Cutler “a sparring partner,” someone hired to do the rounds in a walk-on part rather than as the main character in their own movie.
McKenna’s assumption and implication was that Cutler was brought in to take stick from Benn and Eubank, and was installed by the McGuigans merely to take regular shellings from the lightning-fisted Azim.
But in McGuigan’s Gym, elevated by his surroundings and the attention Pritchard is able to give him, Cutler scored his breakout win last month, dropping the touted McKenna twice on his way to a thrilling and stunning upset win. McKenna was 15-0 (14 KOs) and fighting out of the “home” corner in Liverpool.
Cutler was a 7/2 underdog. He’d been inactive, courtesy of largely out of the ring issues, and while the fight looked attractive on paper, the Mick Hennessy-promoted McKenna was expected to win.
The problem was, Cutler had not read any script, and he no longer could be typecast as merely a sparring partner.
Boxing McKenna, in the co-main on Sky Sports at the Liverpool Exhibition Centre, was his way of showing he belonged. He belonged in the gym with McGuigan and the other champions. He belonged in the gyms he visited with the big names, where he would hold his own. Now, finally, he had the platform to show it.
“To be fair, I think I used to be a bit of a sparring partner,” admitted the 29-year-old.
“When I was down here [near Bournemouth], we were travelling. It’s how I was doing my learning, going on the road, sparring and stuff. But since being in the McGuigan gym, I don’t post photos with people [from sparring] because I see myself as on their level, where before I was a bit of a fan and I was in there and it was, ‘oh, let’s get photos with these guys.’ Now I don’t.”
Cutler is now 15-1 (7 KOs). The last sparring picture he had actually came when Eubank Jnr asked him for one, along with former cruiserweight and heavyweight champion David Haye.
“It was on his birthday, and he goes, ‘Lee, jump in the ring, we’ll get a photo together,’” Cutler added. “That’s sort of where I see myself now. I’m not this fanboy that’s going in just doing rounds with them. And that’s what I said to Stevie [McKenna]. I was like, ‘You called me the sparring partner, but you’re the one that’s going over in America, posting every day who you’re sparring.’
“Being in a gym that I’m in, I’ve taken that mindset and I’ve gone from that sparring partner mindset.”
There were spells, however, when things were not going his way in 2024. There were even periods when, feeling lost and isolated, Cutler thought about packing boxing in. Cutler co-owns a gym in Ringwood, The Revolution, which focuses on Hyrox but also has a boxing area where Lee can coach clients.
Last year, Cutler experienced several obstacles trying to secure a fight date. His name was linked, in no order, to Junaid Boston, Sam Eggington, and Ishmael Davis. There was a sparring injury that kept him out a while. Then, it looked like he might fight Boston, only for heads to be turned by a possible fight at middleweight with Connor Coyle, who has an attractive WBA rating. Then it seemed as though Cutler might fight on the October bill headlined by Azim, against Ohara Davies, but a late reshuffle saw light heavyweight contender Anthony Yarde added to the show. Cutler’s wait continued. Ultimately, he held out until the week before Christmas to get his first start of the year, but it is something he is now grateful for.
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It is in Cutler’s gym where we talk on a cold but crisp winter’s day. He’s in a pair of shorts and a long-sleeved top, preparing to go for a run as he continues to tick over in anticipation of a new date. It is this gym, too, where Cutler felt his future might lie if his boxing career couldn’t work. Victory over McKenna instead provided Cutler with a satisfying payoff for what had unquestionably been a struggle and challenging time.
“It was a tough year,” he explained. “It just seemed like one thing after another, which was quite stressful, but I stayed consistent in the gym. I just stayed consistent and improving. And then it started all showing in my sparring and stuff. McKenna is a fight that got spoken about earlier on in the year but, for one reason or another, it didn’t happen. But I’m thankful it didn’t. Everything happens for a reason. And then it happened, when it was supposed to happen. And now I think I’m in a great position going into 2025.”
Among the low moments were when Billam-Smith was out of camp and Cutler was on his own in London, away from family and friends. Away from his own gym. He struggled financially. Then there were injuries.
“There was a point where I was like, ‘I don’t even know if I wanted to box anymore. I don’t know if I want this.’ Obviously I’ve set up a gym, which we’re in now, and I thought, ‘I could go home and just put time into the gym and start earning some money’, because it felt like the boxing just wasn’t taking off,” he remembered. “When I fought in December 2023 [defeating Kingsley Egbunike], I was like, ‘All right, this is it now. I’ve just won the English title. It’s going to kick on from here.’ And it just never seemed to happen. I just felt like… I was in the gym all the time. I feel like I was wasting time, wasting money, but I’m so thankful for that now because it’s got me through the toughest part of my life. I’ve never had anything hard in my life, but that was probably the hardest part, being away from home, being away from family, being away from friends and keeping at this dream that I’ve always wanted since I was 15 years old.”
Cutler now looks back with gratitude for the struggle, the tough days, the investment, and the faith others showed in him.
Still, going into the McKenna fight as an underdog – despite the team being there ringside, Billam-Smith, Azim, McGuigan et al – Cutler wasn’t tense, rather he felt it was his time to shine; to prove that he belonged.
“I took the pressure off myself massively because I just had this weird feeling. I’ve had such a bad year with just a few things going on around me. I had a lot of pressure on me at the beginning of the year. I had this pressure of being in that stable and I’ve got to perform and getting chucked in there with somebody where I’m seen an underdog straight away, there’s a lot of pressure. But then I started performing better and better in the gym and I was just like, ‘Nah, let’s go for this now.’ I don’t care who I fight.”
The transformation is clear and it was evident against McKenna in how he performed, clattering McKenna to the deck a couple of times while filing some excellent defensive work.
“I know how good I am,” Cutler, clearly emboldened, continued. “I know the lads I’m sparring and I’m getting on better than anyone. I spar with Adam [Azim] and I watch Adam bash up big names. And then they put me in there with Adam and it’s good sparring. Don’t get me wrong, he hardly loses rounds to anyone, and it’s still hard for me to win a round against him because he’s just so fast, but it’s a lot more competitive than what I see him do to other people. So I sort of started gaining confidence and then going into the fight with Stevie, I just felt like… the pressure was all off me. I was just like, ‘I’m going to show how good I am on the night.’”
The lone loss on Cutler’s record was a first-round stoppage defeat to Brad Rea in 2021, nine fights ago. But Cutler explains it was a nutrition and training blip, not a chin issue. Even though it was up at middleweight, Cutler was making weight less comfortably than he does now at 154. Now, despite going down in weight since, he is stronger, fitter and bigger than he ever was at 160lbs.
Against Rea, he recalled: “I had absolutely nothing after the weigh-in.”
Nerves meant he did not refuel either. On the night, he was caught cold and subsequently written off.
Last month, the shots of the 15-0 (14 KOs) McKenna bounced off him, rarely causing him to blink, and Cutler says he is yet to be hurt in a fight. In fact, even after defeating the Irishman, Cutler was read the riot act by Billam-Smith for switching off and becoming too complacent in spells.
But afterwards, there were pictures of Cutler and the rest of the team together and, finally, he felt he’d earned his spot alongside them. There was no imposter syndrome. He was with his people, and they were thrilled for him.
High-profile fighters visit McGuigan’s Gym month in and month out, hopeful that they will be taken on. Cutler has seen them come and go. Shane’s needs require a solid team of good people to create balance and consistency rather than the difficulties that come with some A-listers, regardless of their talent. But Cutler maintained his place despite his inactivity.
“I just started like doubting myself a lot,” he reflected, referring to the rough months of the last year. “And I was like, I don’t deserve to be in this position that I’m in. I was just like, ‘I’m not worthy of this spot right now, even though I want it.’ I was on a good run. I’d won the English title and stuff, but there’s world champions around me.”
That’s even before you factor in the others who have been through the door at McGuigan’s Gym.
“I’m just like, I am nowhere near any of these [Frampton, Haye, Groves…]. Like, I do not deserve to be here. So having a fight, a co-main event, where I was the underdog and to come through it quite comfortably, in my head, sort of now establishes me in the gym. But I also feel like I’ve always felt like part of it because I think everyone likes me and it’s a great gym to be around. I’m friendly with everyone, but now I do feel like I’m worthy of that spot boxing-wise.”
The victory was vindication, too, for the work Pritchard had put into his pupil.
“We’ve got really close over the last year and he’s become a really good mate of mine, and hopefully on December 14 he was very proud of me,” Cutler added. “Hopefully it showed all the hard work that he had put in. Obviously he lost his license very early on in his career, so hopefully he’s getting that little bit of success through me now. He’s spent a lot of time working with Shane and learning Shane’s ways, and passing that all down to me, and I hope it’s showing and I’m really thankful for the time and effort he’s put in to me.”
Cutler’s not unreasonable dream is to headline a fight in Bournemouth, an ambition Billam-Smith has already realized and one that Cutler’s promoter at Boxxer, Ben Shalom, has already outlined.
Cutler wants big fights. He wants a big opportunity, having already shown that he’s no longer just a sparring partner but a fighter who belongs at boxing’s top table.
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