LAVAL, Que. - If there were a referee in this ring, the count against Dave Hilton Jr. would be 71, 72, 73 ...

Unfortunately for the former world champion boxer, this ring is a courtroom. And Hilton stepped into that familiar venue -- again -- while wearing handcuffs.

Hilton was refused bail Wednesday as he faced charges of assault and uttering threats, now piled onto the mountainous rap sheet his boxing family has become famous for.

The Fighting Hiltons -- including brothers Dave Jr., Alex, and Matthew -- were once the premier family of Canadian boxing.

But they've become more legendary for their bouts in the courtroom than on the canvas after being cited in at least 105 criminal cases over the years -- some of them involving a multitude of charges. Many of those charges did not result in convictions.

But members of the hard-drinking Montreal clan have made mischief in a wide swath of establishments: there were holdups at a donut shop, and at a hot-dog joint. In one year alone, Alex opened gunfire in a hotel lobby -- and on a motel window.

According to Quebec's judicial database, about one-third of the Hiltons' prodigious rap sheet belongs to Dave Hilton Jr.

His career resume involves charges in about three-dozen separate cases, for a total of at least 73 counts over the years -- including the two latest ones he faced Wednesday.

Quebec court Judge Dominique Larochelle ruled Hilton should be remain jailed to ensure he has no contact with the alleged assault victim, his on-again, off-again girlfriend.

Larochelle ruled that Hilton has demonstrated an inability to abide by court conditions, and shown he doesn't always make the best choices when it comes to the alleged victim.

But this time, Hilton insisted, it was all for love.

The former world super-middleweight champion testified during his bail hearing that he reunited with his ex-girlfriend -- thus, by his own admission, breaking seven court and bail conditions -- because she threatened to commit suicide.

In a dramatic gesture, Hilton waved his handcuffed arms in a sweeping motion toward the courtroom visitors' gallery.

"I would do the same thing for anyone here," Hilton snapped during a verbal sparring match with exasperated Crown prosecutor Pierre-Luc Rolland, who asked repeatedly why he didn't simply call 911.

"I would do anything in the world to help her."

Hilton acknowledged the relationship with the woman has been troubled. He has been arrested four times in recent months for allegedly assaulting the same girlfriend.

"She can love me today and hate me tomorrow," Hilton told the judge.

The unemployed, 46-year-old scrapper was acquitted in 2007 and again in January, then arrested in May and slapped with five charges in a case that will go to trial in October.

But on Wednesday, Hilton's lawyer Clemente Monterosso played a number of messages from the woman left on his personal cell phone pleading for a way to have the two newest charges tossed.

"Could you do something as fast as possible because I can't live without him," she says in one emotional message.

"My heart is broken."

In the latest incident, Hilton was arrested on Sunday after what police described as a night of drinking in which the woman ended up with a swollen lip. He denies that any assault took place.

But it appears that his son's behaviour is finally wearing thin for the family patriarch. Dave Hilton Sr. does not approve of his latest relationship and, after watching his son sent away again, he said it was too much.

"I do blame my son -- he knew what he was doing when he got up at night and she came to get him," Dave Hilton Sr. said outside court.

"We trusted him, I trusted him, all my other boys would never do that."

When it came to lawbreaking in the family it was Alex Hilton, a former Canadian middleweight champ who shuttled back and forth between prisoners' docks over the years, who was the undisputed heavyweight.

But his mom says he's doing much better these days. The 44-year-old is living at home again and attended his brother's court appearances with his parents.

"Thank goodness it's been almost a year and we have no problems with Alex," said Jean Hilton.

The Crown scoffed when Jean Hilton told the court she was ready to keep Dave Jr. on a short leash. But she was adamant about what she'd do if he went astray: "I can swear on the Bible that I will call the police."

In the most infamous of all the brothers' crimes, Dave Hilton Jr. was convicted in 2001 of sexually abusing his daughters, for which he served two-thirds of a seven-year prison sentence. He was sent to a halfway house, and then back to prison again after breaking his bail conditions.

The daughters, now adults, went to court to get a publication ban lifted on their identities because they wanted to speak out.

The Hilton moniker had already become a staple on Montreal's police blotter decades ago.

In 1985, Alex Hilton pleaded guilty to charges of assault, illegal possession of a firearm and damaging property after firing a revolver in a hotel lobby, then assaulting a security guard who told him to pay a bar tab.

Around the same time he pleaded pleaded guilty to firing a gun into the window of a suburban motel. In 1988, while in jail, he was sentenced to five years in prison for ordering a fellow inmate sodomized.

In 2004, he was convicted after threatening to hurt employees at a diner unless they handed over about $40.

Dave and Matthew Hilton, who also became a world junior middleweight champion in 1987, were convicted in 1992 of armed robbery at a Dunkin' Donuts for a total cash haul of $160.

After his heated exchange Tuesday with the Crown, the wisecracking Dave Hilton Jr. gladly agreed when asked to address the judge. He quipped to the prosecutor he'd much rather look at the female judge: "(She's) much better looking than you."

In this latest case, Hilton insisted his motives were pure. He said the recent death of his former brother-in-law Arturo Gatti, which Brazillian authorities have called a suicide, spurred him to intervene.

He says he only got back with his ex-girlfriend because she was emotionally fragile.

When asked why he didn't call 911 if the woman claimed to be suicidal, Hilton replied: "I'm not going to call the police. I take care of my own problems."

When asked by his lawyer whether he would promise to stay away from the woman if granted bail "one last time," he agreed.