Former boxing champion Scott Fitzgerald seeks redemption in and outside of the ring

Contrite former boxing champion Scott Fitzgerald is hoping redemption for him will include shedding the unwanted label of being one of British boxing’s greatest wasted talents.

In 2019, the Preston fighter appeared to be on the cusp of greatness after two standout domestic victories in the super-welterweight division.

A points win over former Team GB team-mate and boyhood rival Anthony Fowler at the Liverpool Arena appeared set to catapult his career into a different stratosphere.

Billed as the underdog, Fitzgerald - who trains at Larches and Savick Amateur Boxing Club, in Preston, produced a performance of skill and bravery to get the better of Fowler after 10 exhilarating rounds in front of a raucous audience.

Judged as one of the fights of the year, the former Our Lady’s RC High School pupil floored Fowler in the final round to tip the contest his way - that coming after Fitzgerald had withstood an onslaught from his opponent in the previous round.

A few months later, he showed that his success on that occasion was no flash in the pan as he defeated Ted Cheeseman - again via points after another 10 gruelling rounds - to claim the British title.

Winning a coveted Lonsdale belt was his boyhood ambition - but having achieved his dream, he then proceeded to press the self-destruct button in spectacular fashion.

In the build-up to his fight against Fowler, Fitzgerald - who won Commonwealth Games welterweight gold in Glasgow, in 2014 - revealed that he had been suffering from an addiction to drugs, drink and gambling - later admitting that he had been taking drugs since childhood.

While he had managed to get his life together and stay clean in order to fight Fowler and Cheeseman, it did not last long.

Over the course of the next few years, he endured a spectacular fall from grace as his life spiralled out of control amid a series of drug-fuelled incidents.

In 2023, he received a prison term after pleading guilty to grievous bodily harm after an incident outside a Preston pub.

“In 2019, that was a mad year for me,” Fitzgerald said. “I had some great wins; won a British title which is a massive thing.

“It had gone really well and then obviously 2020 lockdown happened and I just, yeah, lost the plot; went proper AWOL.

“Things just spiralled since then and I’ve been in and out of jail every year since then so never again that, though.

“I’m off licence this month and so I can get my boxing licence back - I hope so - something to focus on and that’s what I’m doing right now.”

Time spent behind bars afforded Fitzgerald the opportunity to overcome his addictions and undergo a period of self-reflection.

“I’ve been in some trouble over the last few years,” Fitzgerald said. “But it opens doors to getting help.

“I (got to go) to meetings and I’ve just got my head right, I’ve kept (going to) the meetings and just stayed focused day-to-day on the job and concentrate on each day.

“I used prison to work on myself anyway. Anything I could do in there to help myself, I did.

“Reading books or using the mental health team in there and the drugs teams as well.

“I picked up a lot of things by being in there which will help me to go on with my life.”

There have been times in the past when Fitzgerald insisted he was over his demons, only to fall back into his old ways.

It’s now been a number of years since the boxer appeared on the front pages of the newspapers for all the wrong reasons.

He insists he has safeguards in place to keep him on track and out of trouble.

Determined to make amends, he is keen prove his worth as a human being, especially as he is the father of two young children.

“A lot of it is where you are at in your head,” he added. “I have no interest in it any more, messing about, I am just staying away from it all; staying around the right people - that’s what I am doing.”

Now aged 34, Fitzgerald has given up the best years of his career and he is all-too aware that he has entered the last-chance saloon as far as his boxing career is concerned.

Although regretful about his past behaviour and the years he’s wasted, he is looking to the future and believes there’s still time for him to write further chapters in the ring.

“I do have regrets,” he added. “Who knows where I would have been if 2020 had carried on like 2019.

“Then I could have had six more good years - who knows, I might have been a world champion by now.

“I can have regrets, but things happen for a reason and I just want to see what I can do now and finish off my career well, then I will have less regrets after it, won’t I?”

Read more from Scott Fitzgerald as he plots his boxing return, only in the Lancashire Post