Tony Salam jailed for six years

Woolwich super-middleweight and Southern area champion Tony Salam woke up in prison today after being jailed for six years at Snaresbrook Crown Court yesterday for sexual assault.

The 26 year-old had subjected the victim to being held prisoner in her home which concluded with her being sexually assaulted.

Salam (9-1) was set to take part in the Prizefighter super-middleweight’s tournament at the end of June after winning a fans poll with 5,000 votes but instead found himself in the dock and missing out on a chance of £32,000 and a possible future shot at Commonwealth champion George Groves.

Appearing for sentencing, Salam sported a beard and also sobbed several times as the Judge read out his actions and the consequences of them began to dawn on him.

After a successful amateur career including a 2004 ABA title, Salam made an impressive start to his professional career before losing his unbeaten record in 2008 to another solid amateur in Courtney Fry.

Since that defeat he got his career back on the road with several wins and was beginning to make noise about fighting the likes of James DeGale and Groves.

Meanwhile  he was in waiting of a pending case which has once again resulted in a boxer making headlines for misbehaviour outside the ring. During the incident Salam pushed and verbally insulted the victim before ripping both her dress and underwear before subjecting her to a sexual assault.

Salam will now be placed on the sex offenders register, and is also exempt from working with vulnerable adults in the future. His boxing licence will naturally be withdrawn and he has also been dropped by his promoter Spencer Fearon.

With Judge J Lafferty instructing he serves half of the sentence, he will be almost 30 on release.

In a recent interview Salam was looking forward to a bright future and said “I believe I have the potential to be world class.”

Those assertions seem far off now.