AN ASPIRING professional boxer was stabbed 11 times with a kitchen knife on his birthday.

Josh Douglas, 22, from Brighton, was assaulted in Charles Street, Brighton, just after 7am yesterday.

His dad Wesley Douglas told The Argus that scaffolder Josh and his girlfriend were having a “bit of a domestic” on the street when a man came out of a building and asked the pair to stop shouting before brandishing a kitchen knife.

Josh suffered 11 deep stab wounds as well as defence wounds from putting his hands up to protect himself.

He was last night having surgery to a wound that sliced open the tendons in his hands, which could jeopardise his future as a boxer.

Mr Douglas said: “He couldn’t feel his legs and he was scared he’d never walk again.

“My boy was begging him – he was saying ‘please don’t stab me any more. You’re going to kill me.’

“He’s been boxing since he was 11 years old so I’m praying he pulls through.

“You can’t have people walking the streets with knives. If you stab someone 11 times, you’re looking to kill them, it’s as simple as that – and I think that person should not walk the streets again.

“It’s disgusting. Anyone carrying a knife should be put away for life.”

Mr Douglas added about his son: “He works every hour under the sun travelling back and forth to London and the rest of the time he spends training in the gym.

“Thankfully all the stab wounds were down the left side of his body and three or four in his buttocks, so it missed all the vital organs.

“But there is one in his abdomen, and if that was a little bit higher apparently it could’ve been a lot worse.

“Just because a boy and a girl are having a bit of a domestic it shouldn’t lead to someone being stabbed.”

Sussex Police closed Charles Street after the attack yesterday.

A 33-year-old man was arrested by the police on suspicion of assault.