A THUG shattered the Olympic dream of a promising boxer when he stabbed him in the eye at a pre-Christmas party in Southampton, a court heard.

Cassius Ellis has been forced to abandon a career that saw him win nine of his 11 fights and become southern counties novice champion at welterweight with hopes that he might make the British team for the London Olympics.

Southampton Crown Court heard all that ended after he got involved in a row with another partygoer, Jordan Attwood, who challenged him to a fight outside the house in Bitterne.

But as the boxer, who had been compared with former world champion Prince Naseem Hamed and dreamed of following in the footprints of his idol Muhammad Ali, was bending down to tie up his trainers, Attwood suddenly stabbed him with a two pronged fork.

Although the eye injury was superficial, it was sufficient to wreck his career.

Attwood, 20, pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm.

Sonal Sodha, defending, said that Attwood had picked up the fork because he knew that Ellis was a boxer and he would come off worse.

Recorder Anthony Davies QC heard that Attwood had been convicted last month of a similar offence in Romsey Road, Southampton.

During a struggle, he stabbed his victim in the shoulder and under the arm and cut his face.

The judge remanded Attwood in custody for reports after hearing that he had other convictions for assault and using threatening words or behaviour.

Attwood, of Teddington, London, will be sentenced in October.