Knife crime almost ended his life – but this Royal Marine now dreams of winning Olympic gold
"I felt like that my life was over – and that's such a silly thing to think..."
Those are the words of Royal Marine Commando Kyle Shaw-Tullin, arguably one of the military's most talented and promising young boxers, when he tells me about his near-death experience when he was just 17 while on a night out in Oldham.
It was on that night that the Royal Marine was viciously stabbed up to eight times with a machete – and he sustained multiple stab wounds across his chest, his left forearm and down the left side of his face. His whole world flipped overnight.
"I was in the ICU for two weeks initially," he tells me. "I just don't really remember anything from that point because I was asleep for two weeks, and I was just on so many very strong pain killers.
"But that wasn't the hard part, that was probably the easy part. The hard part was probably rebuilding from that mentally."
Now 23-years-old, Mne Tullin is reflective on how much his life has changed over the past six years.
"At 17-years-old, I couldn't really carry myself, I thought that I knew the world, but I didn't!
"When you go from just being a normal kid and then getting a big red scar on your face, I felt like my life was over, and that's such a silly thing to think."
Getting back into the ring
It took Mne Tullin two years following the attack to return to the sport he loves. He began boxing at the age of 13 in Oldham, where he grew up on a council estate. He dreamed then of one day winning an ABA title.
Inside the Royal Navy's boxing gym at HMS Nelson in Portsmouth, he shows the scars that he sustained in the attack – which he now says are a part of him and his story.
He specifically points to the scar that covers almost the entirety of his left bicep, where he suffered significant damage to his muscles.
"That made my muscles very fatigued, and this arm [left arm] was noticeably slimmer than my right," he recalls.
"So, being an Orthodox, it was hard to hold my hand up, and it would get very tired, so that took a lot of rebuilding the strength in."
He took two years away from boxing following the attack.
But after he decided to return to his club in Oldham, he regained his fitness and went straight into competing at the England Boxing Development Championships, where he won.
A life-changing decision
After returning to the sport, Mne Tullin decided to take some time out of boxing to begin his journey of joining the Royal Marines, a decision which he says changed his life.
"I made the best decision of my life, which was to join the Royal Marines," he says.
"I didn't know that it would be the best decision back then, and I didn't realise what I was getting myself into.
"It was a very, very tough hike, but that's what really made me who I am."
He continued: "It's definitely a very tough course, very demanding, and it's full on. Whereas boxing, I would say, is performance-based, the Marines is more survival-based, make it to the next day and look after the lad on either side of you."
Mne Tullin is a man who wears his green beret with pride. He tells me that joining the Marines is his "greatest achievement in life".
"I always tell people that it's the proudest thing that I ever did, I achieved my greatest achievement in life already," he says.
"Nothing will ever come close to my green lid, not an Olympic medal or anything else in life, it'll always be my green lid."
Rediscovering boxing
After he successfully joined the Royal Marines, Mne Tullin was offered the chance to become a member of the Royal Navy & Royal Marines boxing team.
His rise to the top of military boxing was quick, not least impressive. He was then offered the chance to box full-time after he was awarded elite athlete status by the Royal Navy.
"I had an opportunity, and I took it," he recalls. "And that opportunity was to join Royal Navy Boxing. I took it and it kept paying off because I kept winning that year, and I just fell in love with the sport all over again."
Just months into his military career, Mne Tullin became UK Armed Forces champion in 2024, defeating his Army opponent Cody Pearson in the 80kg category.
He then went on to win a national title at the ABAs, which caught the attention of England Boxing. They were impressed with his rapid rise and his performances inside the ring.
His success at the ABAs led to Mne Tullin being selected to represent England at the Tri-Nations Boxing Championships in Edinburgh, where he won.
Sights on Los Angeles
Mne Tullin is now a full-time boxer for GB Boxing and has enjoyed a short but successful international career to date, winning four golds, one silver and one bronze while representing England and Great Britain.
He tells me that he is targeting a gold medal at the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, but beyond that, he is setting his long-term goals even higher.
"My long-term dream is to go to the Olympics and win an Olympic medal, gold!
He added: "But, my ultimate goal in the sport is, when I give it up, is to say I gave it my all and I did my best."
With a spot on Team GB at the 2028 Olympics firmly in his sights, Mne Tullin hopes that his story can be seen as an example of what can be achieved when faced with adversity.
He says: "It's surreal to come from the estate in Oldham that I have. I can't think of anyone who would've done that in the circumstances that I have, and gone through the stuff that I've been through.
"I just think it would be an amazing personal achievement [to get to the Olympics], but I think it would be a great inspiration for everyone coming up in low-income council estates like myself.
"Experience is key. You can't rush nothing in life; everything is teaching you a lesson for good and bad, and always see the glass as half full."
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