by David P. Greisman

It’s fair to say that 2014 was not a banner year for Antonio Escalante.

The 29-year-old, who’s largely fought in the 122-, 126- and 130-pound divisions, was arrested four times for driving while intoxicated in Texas. Alarmingly, his fourth arrest came after he’d already pleaded guilty to two of those cases.

Now he’s pleaded guilty to the remaining two cases, according to the El Paso Times.

That has led to a harsher sentence — eight years of probation, which is much longer than the 18 months that had been handed down after pleading guilty the first time.

 “As part of the probation, Escalante will have to report to his probation officer once a week, attend the drug court program once a week, attend one individual and two group counseling sessions each week and will have home visits from probation officers four times a week,” the article said.

One of the cases involved Escalante being accused of “driving while intoxicated with a child under 15 years of age,” according to online court records. He also was cited in May 2014 for allegedly having a child not secured by a safety seat.

Online court records list similar accusations over the years: an unrestrained child in 2004, driving under the influence in 2006, driving without a valid license on multiple occasions in 2009 and 2010. Some of these cases wound up dismissed. He’s also had alleged license/license plate violations this year as well.

Escalante turned pro in 2003. Among his notable wins are victories over Cornelius Lock, Mike Oliver, Miguel Roman and Gary Stark Jr.

His losses came to Jairo Sanchez early in his career, to Mauricio Pastrana in 2007, in back-to-back knockout losses to Daniel Ponce De Leon in 2010 and Alejandro Perez, in back-to-back stoppage losses to Rocky Juarez in 2012 and Robert Marroquin in 2013 — and, most recently, a third-round technical knockout loss to Miguel Berchelt on Oct. 11. That dropped him to 29-7 with 20 KOs.

The El Paso Times article says Escalante is scheduled to return to the ring on April 18.

Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com