Scott Fitzgerald: Preston super-welterweight champion boxer facing three charges of common assault

Preston boxer Scott Fitzgerald has been charged with three counts of assault while he awaits trial over an allegation of rape, it can be revealed. The former British super-welterweight champion is currently in custody awaiting his trial, which is due to start on Monday, March 20.

He first appeared in court May 2022, when he denied the charge. At that hearing, Fitzgerald was released on conditional bail but he has since been remanded in custody.

However, it has emerged the 31-year-old is also facing a further three charges of common assault, a court spokesman confirmed to the Post. All three offences are alleged to have happened in November last year. He is yet to enter a plea in relation to the assault charges and will make his first appearance at Preston Magistrates’ Court, via videolink, on March 28.

Who is Scott Fitzgerald?

The Preston-born boxer won the gold medal in the welterweight division at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and went on to amass 15 professional victories without loss, culminating in a British super-welterweight title win over Ted Cheeseman in 2019. He has only fought once since that points win, scoring a technical knockout over France’s Gregory Trenel on May 1, 2021.

In 2022, in the weeks after his first appearance in court to plead not guilty to a charge of rape, it was revealed he no longer had a licence to fight professionally in the UK. Fitzgerald, who trained throughout his boxing career at Larches and Savick ABC, had his boxing licence suspended by the British Boxing Board of Control in April 2020.

It is unclear whether the licence was ever reactivated, but last year a spokesman for the BBBC told the Lancashire Post last year: "Mr Fitzgerald is no longer a licence holder with the British Boxing Board of Control."

When did Scott Fitzgerald last fight?

Fitzgerald’s career, like many elite-level fighters, was sidelined by the Covid-19 pandemic, with an almost two-year break between his last two fights. Speaking in April 2021, he said: “Obviously Covid has affected a lot of things but I see no reason why I can’t one day fight for a world title. “I think all through my career, I have always been seen as the underdog.”