Former world champion boxer Billy Joe Saunders was sentenced for using a beer bottle and punching people during a mass brawl at a baby shower in Bulkington, Warwickshire. The court heard the fight involved nine men and was “very violent”; one person was stabbed through the hand, while another man was alleged to have had a gun.

The incident began shortly after midnight on 28 November 2021, after an earlier dispute had calmed. Prosecutors said Saunders used a bottle as a weapon and threw bottles across the room; the judge said he was more seriously involved than some of the other defendants. Saunders, whose boxing career ended after his defeat by Canelo Alvarez in May 2021 and a fractured eye socket, was given 15 months in prison, suspended for 18 months.