Journeyman Paul Butlin fought several big-name heavyweights during his career but claims only one man knocked him out cold.
The 41-year-old went the distance with Derek Chisora twice before testing himself against Lucas Browne when he was a heavyweight star on the rise in 2012.
Anthony Joshua is the biggest name on Butlin’s record. They squared off in AJ’s second professional fight, well before he became a two-time world champion and a boxing superstar.
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Butlin was stopped in two rounds, but avoided the same fate Francis Ngannou suffered against Olympic gold medallist Joshua at ‘Knockout Chaos’ in his most recent fight.
In fact, Butlin avoided suffering a true knockout until his very final fight when he squared off against Kash Ali, the man whom Joe Joyce hopes to beat to get his career back on track.
“I’ve already fought Kash Ali, and I got sparked in the last 10 seconds,” Butlin said on TikTok in response to a fan telling him to end his boxing retirement for a fight with 6ft 6in heavyweight.
“It was my last fight…I was fat as f***. I was a big, fat slammer. I wasn’t really training. I just took the fight thinking I could do it as usual.
“I was winning the fight on aggression – you can watch it yourself on YouTube. I was a fat slob, that’s the only thing. I can’t watch it because I look a mess.
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“I think it was the last eight seconds, 10 seconds, he bowls a right hand over the top. Broke his hand, but he knocked me out. I was never knocked out in 41 fights before he sparked me.”
Butlin, who has become a bailiff since walking away from boxing, says he immediately knew his time in the sport was up after facing Ali in June 2016.
He added: “I got up and my mate who I was with, I just said ‘This is it. I’m done. I can’t do it, it’s too dangerous.’
“I was 40 years old. It was my 41st fight, and I just thought, ‘Do you know what? F*** this. I’ve got to get out with my marbles or God knows where it’s going to end up.’
“And that was my last fight.”
Joyce will hope to avoid suffering the same fate as Butlin as he looks to get his career back on track following back-to-back stoppage losses against Zheili Zhang.
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Potential rematches with Daniel Dubois and Joseph Parker, whom he beat, await for ‘The Juggernaut’ if he gets by Ali this weekend at the Resorts World Arena in Birmingham.
