Dorset boxer Cutler's 'hardest conversation' after making life-changing decision

Lee Cutler spoke to Total Guide to Dorset after his London calling to join the famous McGuigan stable.

DORSET boxer Lee Cutler lifted the lid on the most monumental change of his career, after what he described as “the hardest conversation I have ever had”.

The 27-year-old this month made the change in his coaching ranks to join up with Josh Pritchard, as part of Shane McGuigan’s world-famous stable in London.

It meant the man nicknamed ‘Chaos’ would no longer be trained in Poole by long-serving coach Kev Thorniley, who he had worked with since his days as an amateur.

The move was sought by Cutler after he sounded out Bournemouth star and close friend Chris Billam-Smith, who has been part of the McGuigan team since 2017.

Explaining how the switch came about, Verwood-raised Cutler told Total Guide to Dorset: “I felt like I just needed a change. At this point of my life, coming up to 28 this December, I needed to be around other top-level athletes.

“Being down in Bournemouth, I would have to travel for sparring and it was only me down there. It’s just that natural progression.

“I reached out to Chris and said ‘do you reckon they will take me?’. They know who I am. I get on with the whole team up here.

“They let me come up for a chat and they said ‘we like you, we think we can help you’ and it all happened from there.

“It was just in a couple of hours. I got a call off Chris and he said ‘look, you can come up and speak to them tomorrow, do a couple of sessions and stuff’.

“From there, I made the move. I was actually in hospital seeing my grandad that night. He is fine now but I went home from the hospital afterwards, packed my stuff and came up.”

Cutler’s professional record currently stands at 13 wins and a solitary defeat, all of which came under the tutelage of Thorniley.

Asked how tough it was to speak with the Parkstone ABC coach about making a change, Cutler replied: “It was probably the hardest conversation I have ever had to have in my life.

“But I was just at a stage in my life where I had to do it. I believe if anyone else was in the same position as me, they would have made the same decision.

“You have only got one shot at this. I am 28 in December, coming into my prime. I need to make the most of these next few years.

“Whatever it takes to get the most out of me, I have done whatever I can. I just need that extra little push now.

“It’s not cheap moving up to London. It wasn’t an easy decision but I have had to do it for myself.

“He understood. It was sad for us both because we are so close. We had just been to Tenerife on a training holiday.

“It was a sad time for us both but we are all good. He will always be a big part of my career going forward on fight week and things.

“I will always be helping out with the amateurs at his club back at home when I am out of camp. I like travelling with them, taking them to shows and passing on my knowledge. “

Cutler is currently staying with WBO Cruiserweight champion Billam-Smith, whose first defence of the world crown against Mateusz Masternak is set for Bournemouth on Sunday, December 10.

Former Poole ABC man Cutler is set to fight for the English super-welterweight title against Kingsley Egbunike on the undercard of the event at the BIC.

Quizzed on what his first few weeks with the McGuigans had been like, he replied: “It’s just been eye-opening.

“I’d come in the gym before but, when you are trained by someone else, they don’t want to step on any toes or change your style too much.

“The knowledge behind the boxing has been mind-opening for me and it’s great to be around top-level athletes all the time, as well as some of the best coaches in the world.”