Lee Purdy

Lee Purdy, known as “Lights Out”, was an English professional boxer from Colchester who campaigned at light-welterweight early on before doing his best work as an orthodox welterweight. Short and stocky at 5ft 7in, he boxed between December 2006 and December 2013, finishing with a record of 20 wins, 5 losses and 1 draw, with 13 knockouts, and he held the British Boxing Board of Control British welterweight title during a brisk, noisy spell in 2011.

Purdy’s rise was unusual by British standards because he came through without the grounding of an established amateur career, learning on the job under the harsher rules of the paid game. He moved quickly through the small-hall scene into ten-round territory, winning the Southern Area title in 2009 and looking, at his best, like a fighter built to make opponents uncomfortable rather than to win aesthetic prizes—busy, willing to trade, and always with the threat of a finishing shot when a man began to tire.

The first real crossroads came on 16 April 2010 when he challenged Denton Vassell for the vacant Commonwealth welterweight title and lost a twelve-round decision. It was a reminder that there is a jump from being a strong domestic contender to being a champion-in-waiting, and that at welterweight, you rarely get time to adjust in peace.

Purdy’s peak arrived a year later. On 16 April 2011, he stopped Craig Watson in five rounds at Manchester Arena to win the British welterweight title, doing it with the sort of authority that turns a “ticket-seller” into a champion overnight. He repeated the dose in the rematch that July, again halting Watson in the fifth, a pair of nights that suited his nickname and his temperament.

The reign ended at York Hall on 9 November 2011, where Colin Lynes outboxed him over twelve rounds to take the title on a majority decision. Purdy was put down in the tenth and, though he finished with spirit, he was beaten clearly on the cards, with the scoring reflecting the story of the fight rather than the romance of a late rally.

Instead of fading into the background, he rebuilt. In 2012 and 2013, he picked up the IBF International welterweight title, first at Alexandra Palace and then with a notable defence when he stopped Cosme Rivera in nine rounds at Wembley Arena. Those wins earned him a call he was never going to refuse: four weeks’ notice to fly to Boardwalk Hall and face Devon Alexander after Kell Brook pulled out injured. Purdy missed the welterweight limit, which stripped the bout of its world-title meaning before the first bell, and he was eventually pulled out at the end of the seventh under sustained control from the quicker, sharper champion.

His last roll of the dice came on 14 December 2013 at ExCeL London against Leonard Bundu for the European title, a brutal fight that ended with Purdy stopped late in the twelfth. The damage proved far more serious than the stoppage: he suffered a severe injury to his left eye. He underwent multiple operations, and the injury ended his ability to box professionally. It is an unglamorous way for a fighter to be finished—no farewell tour, no soft landing—just a body part that will not retake the strain, and the decision made for him.

Away from the ring, Purdy’s name surfaced in court reporting in 2013 when he was charged with alleged fraud and money laundering, and he was later found not guilty by a jury. He has been retired from boxing since the eye injury closed the door, leaving the record as it stands: British champion, big nights in Manchester and London, and high-profile stoppage defeats at world and European level that arrived just as the body stopped agreeing to the bargain.