CAGE fighter Ronnie Mann has branded the sentence received by the "thug" who left him permanently disfigured as "a joke".
The professional cage fighter, who is known as "Kid Ninja", was left facially scarred after being attacked with a broken bottle outside a Cheltenham nightclub.
He hit back at his assailant Jed Dicks, leaving the 22-year-old unable to walk after the beating.
But yesterday, after hearing Dicks, of Selkirk Gardens, Pittville, Cheltenham, had not been sentenced to prison, Mr Mann hit out. "I think it's a bit of a joke. I feel let down by the criminal justice system," he said.
Judge William Hart sentenced Dicks to 12 months jail, suspended for 18 months.
Dicks was also ordered to pay Mr Mann £500 in compensation and to do 100 hours of unpaid work and attend 22 days of a thinking skills programme and 10 days of education and employment training.
Mr Mann, who is also known as 'Iron', said: "He's a thug. I feel like I now have to constantly watch my back. There is no doubt I could have overwhelmed him in a fight, but I'm a professional and I don't want violence on the streets and that's why I went to the police.
"I feel if it was the other way around I would have been sent to prison because I'm a professional. Perhaps they feel like I should be able to take care of myself and that's wrong really because I'm a normal person."
Ronnie said his scar was very visible and he had lost a potential £5,000 because his injuries meant he had been unable to train for a fight in America.
"The £500 compensation doesn't really cut it," he added.
Dicks pleaded guilty to unlawfully wounding Bangkok- born Mann, who has won 21 of his 27 fights as a mixed martial artist.
The two men were both outside Lace club in Albion Street, at 3.30am on December 18, 2010, when the offence happened.
Prosecutor Tim Hills said Dicks was holding a bottle when he left the nightclub and he then got into an argument with another man.
The bottle broke but Dicks kept holding it, then went to grab the other man, slipped on the ice, and as, Dicks lashed out at the other man, hit Mr Mann in the face instead.
Mr Mann "meted out some violence of his own on the defendant" before going home and two days later he went to hospital for treatment to his facial cut, Mr Hills said.
