FORMER boxing champion Scott Fitzgerald has been jailed after floored a man outside a pub with a single punch.
The Commonwealth gold medallist attacked Leevi Francis in a drink and drug-fuelled rage.
Leevi suffered a broken jaw and a cut below his eyebrow after being knocked unconscious outside the Grand Junction in Preston, Lancashire.
Fitzgerald has now been jailed for 46 weeks after he pleaded guilty to GBH on the first day of his trial.
Preston Crown Court heard how the boxer had been drinking all afternoon and smoked cannabis on November 27 last year.
CCTV footage showed him “bouncing around the pub” before he went into the pool room.
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Landlady Kirsty Allen kicked him out after he stamped on the floor hard close to the pool table.
After being shoved outside by a group of drinkers, Fitzgerald first confronted another man.
Seeing this, Leevi stepped in to help and was punched to the ground by the British light-middleweight champion.
He lay unconscious for around a minute before being taken to hospital.
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In a victim impact statement, Leevi said a plate inserted into his jaw causes him pain at night as he told how he lost two stone after being left unable to eat.
He also revealed he has suffered socially since the attack and feels anxious about his son’s boxing hobby.
Ayaz Qazi, defending, told the court how Fitzgerald’s successful career, which saw him win a gold medal for his country in 2014, was blighted by his drink and drug use.
The lawyer said he is now banned from professional boxing but has remained sober while being kept on remand in custody.
Mr Qazi added: “He is utterly aghast and ashamed of the way he was behaving, this loutish and disorderly behaviour in public.”
Sentencing, Judge Richard Archer said Fitzgerald using his fists was the equivalent of using a weapon in a fight.
He said: “You know, as somebody who is supposed to be trained to control aggression and channel it for the purposes of professional sport, that when to behave that way – even by your own admission under the influence of drink and drugs – is entirely unacceptable.
“You risk very serious consequences for your victim.
“A professional boxer who under the influence is unable to charge the power in those fists could all so easily have rendered a man not just unconscious, but dead.
“It is fortunate you are not facing a much more serious charge. There are many people who face those charges based on a single blow.”
The sentence is the latest drama in the boxer’s troubled personal life.
In 2021, worrying pictures emerged of super-welterweight champ lying on the street outside a pub.
Fitzgerald took to social media to reassure fans after promotor Eddie Hearn voiced his concerns over the pictures.
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
