BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND – It was the fight on the Ben Whittaker-Liam Cameron II bill many were arguably most looking forward to.

Bournemouth’s in-form Lee Cutler was taking on the evergreen warrior Sam Eggington, from nearby Smethwick, and ringsiders polled by BoxingScene were split. Several fancied the emerging Cutler, while others though the veteran and fellow Englishman Eggington might be able to contain and outbox his younger challenger.

In the end, no one seemed especially satisfied after the referee, Mark Bates, ruled that Eggington could not continue after the bell sounded to start the ninth round.

Eggington had taken on plenty of facial damage – as had Cutler – by the time the end came, and Eggington was awarded the decision by margins of 87-85, 90-83, and 87-85.

It was announced the ninth round was scored because the bell sounded, even though the fighters did not come close to landing a blow on one another.

“This man’s no joke,” said Eggington.

“I thought I was winning. I gave maybe two rounds away trying to be cute, and I’m not cute. I genuinely thought I won the fight cleanly. Lee Cutler is cut from the same cloth as me and he will come back.”

There were signs that Cutler’s youth might be served early on. He landed first when they were in close and scored as they came out of clinches.

But Eggington had plenty of his own success, double jabbing and planting a right squarely into Cutler’s face.

Eggington had speculated that Cutler would try to outbox him, but Cutler had contended he would be there for a war. The Bournemouth fighter was not moving his head enough, while the veteran had a relaxed look about him and boxed with his hands down, but as they came together near the end of the second their heads clashed and Eggington was left with a nasty wound below his right eye, which was bleeding profusely.

Both got to work in the third. They fired away at one another’s body and Eggington’s right eye was starting to close.

As they battled in close, Eggington slotted in uppercuts, but Cutler marched forwards and didn’t stop throwing.

Cutler was more defensively responsible at the start of the fourth. Eggington tried to make room to work but every time he did so Cutler stepped with him and threw shots.

A right hand landed on Cutler’s head with a thud, and Cutler was marked up by his left eye.

Both tried to establish their jabs in the fifth and the range suited Eggington more. He was able to catch Cutler on the end of some of his longer shots, then, near the end of the session with Eggington’s back to the ropes, he cracked Cutler with two hard right hands that clearly registered.

Cutler’s corner implored him to “chip away downstairs”, in the sixth as the blood flowed down his left cheek. Eggington walked through a right hand near the end of the frame and both feinted for openings more in the seventh, with Eggington momentarily slipping face-first to the canvas as he tried to close in on Cutler. Again Cutler landed a right near the bell, but there was not enough on it to deter the veteran. 

Cutler put together a good spell of work to open the eighth round, beating Eggington to the punch at times and counter effectively at others.

It was at the start of the ninth when the action was paused to assess Eggington’s battered features, and Bates deemed that Eggington could not continue, and that the fight would go to the scorecards.

Cutler looked dejected at how he had performed and Eggington looked dissatisfied at not being allowed to go on. There was a long, uncertain pause as the fighters – and the humming crowd – waited for the scorecards to be tallied and announced.

Cutler, 15-2 (7 KOs), had been coming off a career best-win, having dropped and outscored the Irish prospect Stephen McKenna in Liverpool in December. Despite that, he conceded that Eggington was the best opponent he had faced and that he knew he would be tested.

Trained by former fighter Josh Pritchard as part of the McGuigan’s Gym stable, where he works alongside the former WBO cruiserweight champion and childhood friend Chris Billam-Smith, and reigning champions Ellie Scotney and Caroline Dubois, Cutler was the fighter in the ascendency, and hoping to fulfil his dream of headlining in Bournemouth.

Shane McGuigan and his hall-of-fame inductee father, Barry, were in attendance to support Cutler from ringside.

The Jon Pegg-trained Eggington, who two fights previously lost to Abass Barou on a majority decision for the vacant European junior-middleweight title, is 36-9 (20 KOs).