Former British champion Lennox Clarke has been jailed after fleeing to avoid arrest for supplying cocaine to a drug dealer in Cheltenham, England.

Clarke, 33, was handed a sentence of six years and four months, but will serve 317 days less than that for time spent on curfew.

It was found that Stourbridge's Clarke, who was also a Commonwealth super-middleweight champion, met dealer Ben Goff on 12 occasions before being made a person of interest by Gloucestershire Police following Goff's arrest.

Clarke fled the country, visiting Ireland, Thailand and Mexico in his time on the run, to elude authorities.

"Just after Goff got arrested, Clarke decided to go on the run for a number of months, initially staying in local hotels for a couple of nights, we think, trying to understand whether the police were coming for him," Detective Inspector Matt Phillips said.

"Then, he went out through Wales to Ireland, and spent some time on the run in Thailand, Mexico and other places until he returned to the UK and was arrested."

Clarke was promoted by Frank Warren's Queensberry Promotions for fights against Lerrone Richards, Willy Hutchinson and Mark Heffron from 2019-2022.

It was his stunning fifth-round knockout win over big favourite Hutchinson in March 2021, winning the British and Commonwealth titles in the process, which caught the attention of boxing fans, however.

The judge who passed down Clarke's sentence told the former boxer, who has a previous conviction for supplying Class B drugs in 2012, that he had clearly failed to learn his lesson.