Boxing champ on drug charges can’t keep out of the headlines
Raphael Vassallo Scott Dixon – the 33-year-old former Commonwealth welterweight champion currently facing drug trafficking charges in Malta – has been many things in his career: national coach for the youth Olympic boxing team; body-double for actor Brad Pitt... as well as victim of a savage assault that very nearly cost him his life 10 years ago. Long before finding himself splashed about the local papers for his alleged involvement in a local cannabis trafficking ring, Dixon was all over the British press after he revealed details of a brutal attempt on his life back in 1999.
Dixon, who has family connections in Malta, was abducted in his hometown Hamilton (a suburb of Glasgow) by three men: one of whom was his friend and boxing companion, Gary MacMillan.
Dixon was forced into a car and driven to the outskirts of town, where McMillan and his two companions repeatedly beat the boxing champion on the head and limbs with a baseball bat, a hammer and a knife... breaking his left arm and both his legs in the process.
It seems the motive for this assault was jealousy: Dixon had previously had an affair with one of McMillan’s ex-girlfriends. McMillan was eventually sentenced in 2004 to five years in a Glasgow prison, for what the judge termed a “cowardly attack”.
Initially, Dixon’s injuries were thought to be bad enough to end his career as a professional boxer. He still has a metal plate in his left arm, as well as tendon damage in both his legs for which he requires therapy to this day. He also suffers from drop foot: an inability to lift his foot at the ankle.
However, he not only survived the ordeal, but – while he never quite regained his previous form as Commonwealth champion – he also returned to the boxing ring here in Malta, where he was eventually appointed national coach for the youth Olympic squad.
However, Scott Dixon’s troubles are by no means over, as he has recently been implicated, along with five other suspects, in last month’s record haul of over 500kg of cannabis by the Malta police.
Jovica Kolakovic, 52, who was born in Serbia but resides in the UK, and Tomas Mikalauskas of Lithuania, also from the UK, together with British nationals Sheri Anne Steedman, 38 and Jason Lee Holland, 39, and Maltese national Kevin Sammut, 28, were jointly charged in court on September 10 for conspiracy to import and traffic cannabis.
Dixon was apprehended separately in Scotland on the strength of a European Arrest Warrant, and extradited to Malta on Tuesday. The former boxing champion was charged with conspiracy to drug trafficking on Friday, and remanded in custody by Magistrate Jacqueline Padovani Grima.
Dixon, who pleaded not guilty to all charges, was denied bail on account of the gravity of the charges.
This week, the Malta Boxing Federation also suspended him as National Youths Coach, and stripped him of his position within the MBF.Raphael Vassallo
Scott Dixon – the 33-year-old former Commonwealth welterweight champion currently facing drug trafficking charges in Malta – has been many things in his career: national coach for the youth Olympic boxing team; body-double for actor Brad Pitt... as well as victim of a savage assault that very nearly cost him his life 10 years ago.
Long before finding himself splashed about the local papers for his alleged involvement in a local cannabis trafficking ring, Dixon was all over the British press after he revealed details of a brutal attempt on his life back in 1999.
Dixon, who has family connections in Malta, was abducted in his hometown Hamilton (a suburb of Glasgow) by three men: one of whom was his friend and boxing companion, Gary MacMillan.
Dixon was forced into a car and driven to the outskirts of town, where McMillan and his two companions repeatedly beat the boxing champion on the head and limbs with a baseball bat, a hammer and a knife... breaking his left arm and both his legs in the process.
It seems the motive for this assault was jealousy: Dixon had previously had an affair with one of McMillan’s ex-girlfriends. McMillan was eventually sentenced in 2004 to five years in a Glasgow prison, for what the judge termed a “cowardly attack”.
Initially, Dixon’s injuries were thought to be bad enough to end his career as a professional boxer. He still has a metal plate in his left arm, as well as tendon damage in both his legs for which he requires therapy to this day. He also suffers from drop foot: an inability to lift his foot at the ankle.
However, he not only survived the ordeal, but – while he never quite regained his previous form as Commonwealth champion – he also returned to the boxing ring here in Malta, where he was eventually appointed national coach for the youth Olympic squad.
However, Scott Dixon’s troubles are by no means over, as he has recently been implicated, along with five other suspects, in last month’s record haul of over 500kg of cannabis by the Malta police.
Jovica Kolakovic, 52, who was born in Serbia but resides in the UK, and Tomas Mikalauskas of Lithuania, also from the UK, together with British nationals Sheri Anne Steedman, 38 and Jason Lee Holland, 39, and Maltese national Kevin Sammut, 28, were jointly charged in court on September 10 for conspiracy to import and traffic cannabis.
Dixon was apprehended separately in Scotland on the strength of a European Arrest Warrant, and extradited to Malta on Tuesday. The former boxing champion was charged with conspiracy to drug trafficking on Friday, and remanded in custody by Magistrate Jacqueline Padovani Grima.
Dixon, who pleaded not guilty to all charges, was denied bail on account of the gravity of the charges.
This week, the Malta Boxing Federation also suspended him as National Youths Coach, and stripped him of his position within the MBF.
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Long before finding himself splashed about the local papers for his alleged involvement in a local cannabis trafficking ring, Dixon was all over the British press after he revealed details of a brutal attempt on his life back in 1999.
