Cutting tops bodybuilding tilt

Derek Cutting was a cut above the competition in winning the overall bodybuilding competition in last Saturday’s 2021 Dee Clayton Classic at the Saipan World Resort.

Judges Jonas Barcinas, Dan Chase, and Ferdinand Lagmay all gave Cutting 3 points each for a total of 9 points for the 40-year-old owner of Latte Built Gym.

It was sort of a successful return for the U.S. Army reservist as he hasn’t competed locally since winning the overall title in the same event back in 2015.

“It’s fun. It’s my passion. It’s my sport of choice. I haven’t competed locally since 2015, but I competed in 2018 in Guam. I was supposed to go to Hawaii for the Shawn Ray Classic in 2018 but we got hit by Super Typhoon Yutu then. So it was like 46 weeks into training and two weeks before competition Yutu hit and I couldn’t leave because I had military orders,” he said.

Cutting beat out Stanley Iakopo and Lorenzo Sanchez in the bodybuilding competition with the former earning 2 points each from chief judge Barcinas, Chase, and Lagmay for a total of 6 points, while latter got 3 points with a point each from the judges. Cutting, Iakopo, and Sanchez all went home with trophies for best middleweight, lightweight, and middleweight, respectively. Iakopo, who is the executive officer of the CNMI Office of Veterans Affairs, also won Best in Abs.

Derek Cutting won the overall bodybuilding competition of the 2021 Dee Clayton Classic last Saturday night at the Saipan World Resort. (MICHAEL JORNAL)

Cutting, who did a guest posing in the 2019 Dee Clayton Classic, said one thing going for him coming into the competition was that he owned his own gym.

“I maintained a pretty good physique year-round. I diet 12-13 weeks out from the show. I wasn’t honestly going to compete until last week. I was supposed to just guest pose for Dee (bodybuilding competition organizer Dee Clayton), but I always want to support one way or the other. I also have my clients that compete. But when I heard it was her 10th year anniversary, I figured I should support her and jumped in as a competitor. I just signed up last week,” he added.

The U.S. Army sergeant first class admitted that the sport is not only a hobby for him, but also kind of a religion already.

“Bodybuilding, health, and fitness is my passion. I have fun putting my body through grueling training and dieting programs to see how far I can push myself to come out better than last time. My only competition is myself from the last show. I strive to beat my old self each time,” he said.

Cutting, however, remains humble and said he pretty much is a big fish in a small pond when it comes to bodybuilding.

“There are hundreds of thousands if not millions of better physique competitors in this world than me. As long as I beat my old self, then I feel I did my job. I look up to many of those pro-level athletes and strive to develop the self-discipline they have. I’ve competed in seven different shows over the years. I placed in all of them but only took the overall win a few times.”

The Paxton, Massachusetts native dedicated his victory in the 2021 Dee Clayton Classic to his wife Tania, who he admitted as a love-hate relationship with him competing.

“She supports me and is proud to see me dedicate myself so devoutly to a goal, but often when us competitors are ‘on diet’ and carb-depleted we get angry and kind of snappy. But she’s a trooper and is always reminding me to practice my posing and critiques me when I’m creating my routines. She’s also my backstage assistant who tans and glazes me before my stage performance.”

Cutting also gave kudos to Clayton, who he describes as the CNMI’s mother of fitness and bodybuilding.

“She does so much for the competitors and fitness community on Saipan and we all appreciate her dedication to the sport! This was her 10-year anniversary which is the main reason I decided to compete locally again,” he said.

Results of the other categories of the 2021 Dee Clayton Classic will be published in the next issues of Saipan Tribune.