The first-round knockout of Ebenezer Tetteh may never quite make up for that inflicted by Fabio Wardley, but with it Frazer Clarke exorcised many of the demons that haunted him for the often-difficult six months he endured before returning to the ring.
October’s highly anticipated rematch with Wardley not only forced on him the relative embarrassment of an outcome to a fight that so many fighters dread, but a cheekbone and jaw injury sufficiently serious that at one point he feared brain damage and started telling his partner about his life-insurance policy and savings.
In Ghana’s Tetteh in April, Clarke was matched with an opponent considered capable of testing either the damage permanently inflicted by the heavy-handed Wardley or the potential he retained as a 10-fight professional who won an Olympic bronze medal as recently as 2021.
Clarke, like Daniel Dubois in the first round before him and unlike the proven Dillian Whyte – who required seven rounds – stopped Tetteh in only 112 seconds to become the third fighter to defeat him and to start to truly move on from the only defeat of his own. With Oleksandr Usyk and Dubois destined for their rematch at London’s Wembley Stadium on July 19, David Adeleye and Jeamie Tshikeva ordered to again contest the British heavyweight title and Johnny Fisher and David Allen fighting for the second time on Saturday, Britain is again at the centre of the heavyweight-boxing universe. Clarke – who will watch Wardley fight Australia’s Justis Huni in the UK on June 7 – is a potential opponent for the winners of Adeleye-Tshikeva and Fisher-Allen II. If each represent more ambitious rivals than Tetteh, they are also ones he would confront with some of the self-belief that was at risk.
“I’ll have no other boxer tell you otherwise – people would be lying in my situation, especially coming off a knockout loss, [to say] they don’t have that thing in the back of their mind saying, ‘Could this go wrong again?’,” Clarke told BoxingScene. “It’s just human nature – it’s there.
“There’s no point me buttering it up and saying, ‘I was completely fine’. I was confident in the way I was training and confident in the fact that I felt good, but when I was warming up in the back of the arena – jogging up and down – you have that little voice in the back of your head saying, ‘Remember what happened last time’. It’s just there – you cannot get away from it.
“It wasn’t as easy as I made it look. We’re males; we’re proud; we try to act invincible. We’re not – we do our best to perceive to everyone else we’re absolutely fine. Thankfully, I was. I executed the game plan well; landed some big shots, and that was all she wrote. But to say that I just breezed it would be a lie.
“The thing that always get asked of me is, ‘What are you going to ring walk to?’. I honestly didn’t care. I wasn’t interested in anything else – just the rest. I wasn’t interested in my kit – I wore the same kit I wore four or five fights ago. I wanted to get in the arena and I wanted to do the fight. The fact that it was like a home show ‘cause it was in Birmingham, close to where I live – none of it matters to me. All I wanted to do was get in the ring and perform – that was it.
“It’s a lesson I’ve learned – sometimes you buy into the WWE side of professional boxing, the glitz and the glamor, and there’s nothing wrong with that; it’s an entertainment business – but for this particular fight I was just interested in winning.
“I’m not the most emotional person but you can see it – I give it two screams of aggression after that fight was stopped. That wasn’t me planning on doing that – it just sort of came out. It was a mix of months and months of frustration; the result last time; the background noise of people saying, ‘He’s not what he or other people think he is’. It’s good to show emotion – it shows that I care, ‘cause I really do.
“I was just interested in the result – relief is probably the right word. You’re second guessing yourself as well. ‘Can you actually do this?’ Even though I knew I can. I got stopped in the first round after a big shot – I didn’t have a 12-round battering. If I’d taken a [sustained] hiding I’d have asked [more] questions of meself.
“I’d have liked to get a few more rounds in ‘cause I trained bloody hard for it. I was in really good condition. ‘Cause of what happened last time, you’re very determined to put on a show and make a statement, even though I was expecting a tough 10 rounds. But it was what I needed. I needed something to make people stand up and say, ‘Wait a minute – there’s more to this’. I was delighted that it happened in the first round – I needed that. I was quite happy.”
Clarke returned to the gym of his trainer Angel Fernandez less than 48 hours after the considerable catharsis of the victory over Tetteh. He has since been on holiday to Cyprus with his family – his partner Danni-Leigh Robinson was ringside to watch his face become disfigured against Wardley; his eight-year-old daughter Mia had watched what had unfolded live on television – and if he isn’t matched on the undercard of Callum Simpson’s European super-middleweight title fight with Ivan Zucco on June 7 he will seek to be a part of the Ukrainian Usyk’s preparations for his undisputed heavyweight title fight with Dubois.
“We’ve had a few conversations,” he said of his promoter Boxxer. “I want to be busy; I want to be active. I’m best when I’m fighting regularly and back in camp regularly. We’ve got the Callum Simpson show; if not, we’ve spoken about September, which is a bit long for me. I don’t want to wait that long to fight.
“But if that’s the way it is, that’s how it works out. In the interim I’ll go and get some good work, and good sparring – maybe over in the States. I’m [also] going to put my name forward to go and get some experience with Oleksandr Usyk. As long as I keep meself busy in the interim and I’m not going stale – it could be that or it could be September and then again in December. There’s conversations to be had. Maybe we divert and go past the British title and take a different route.
“The way I see it – we’re all floating around the same sort of level. My next one or two, I’d like to fight the winner of ‘TKV’ and Adeleye. But the proposition of me versus The Romford Bull [Fisher] makes a good match. It all depends how he comes through this fight. I want him to win – it’s better for British heavyweight boxing if someone who wants to fight his way towards titles wins the fight.”
Clarke, unmistakably, spoke in that moment like a fighter who retains his desire and ambition. He spoke similarly in the build-up to his return against Tetteh, even if, as he has since revealed, he struggled with more than a sense of doubt.
The 26-year-old Fisher, regardless of whether he will acknowledge it to himself or others, will similarly be battling for his self-belief ahead of Saturday’s contest with Allen at London’s Copper Box Arena. If Clarke considers him a future opponent it is because he has confidence in Fisher’s chances of ability. Clarke stopped Allen in the fight before he was first matched with Wardley; Allen appeared in a position where at 33 his career was over, and yet even after his controversial split-decision defeat by Fisher, perhaps even more so than applied to Clarke after beating Tetteh, his career has been revived.
It is the nature of heavyweight boxing to which Clarke is increasingly becoming accustomed; more broadly it is the reality of an industry – Clarke, Allen and Tetteh will each already know that and in time the popular Fisher and Wardley will learn it also – in which they form only the smallest and most expendable of parts.
“It was an inexperienced Johnny Fisher who got excited,” Clarke said. “One punch changed the fight, and that’s the truth of it. I did have Dave winning it – edging it, he showed a lot just to do that. He’s been in Fuerteventura [in Spain] – he’s done the right thing. He’s took himself away; he’s gone to camp; worked hard. I’ve no doubt he’ll be a little bit fitter – I’m not doubting he was fit the first time. There’s being fit and there’s having the knowledge to do the rounds. He’s still relatively inexperienced. Experience and knowing how to do the rounds is a completely different thing.
“People say, ‘Dave Allen boxed great in the first fight’. I didn’t see him box great. I’ve never seen him box great. He possesses power in the right hand and if he hits you you know about it, but other than that there’s not a lot that really goes on. It’s better for boxing – for the British heavyweight scene – if Johnny wins.
“I don’t think Dave Allen has much more to offer. I’m rooting for Johnny; I’d like Johnny to win. I don’t know Johnny super well, but he might have to discipline himself not to go looking for a knockout. If he uses his head and not get involved – not in the first five, six rounds anyway – his gas tank will be a lot better and he can look really good and look like a disciplined boxer than just a big, strong, athletic heavyweight who can punch.
“It’s a good match in terms of Johnny’s development. Dave Allen won’t like the words I’m gonna say – and to be honest I don’t give a shit, ‘cause he did nothing than try to cheat me out of a victory when I boxed him [in September 2023]; complaining about low blows, every two seconds; complaining about punches to the back of the head; he was doing the same but was probably more crafty than I was – so I think Johnny Fisher’s the favourite. If you make some slight adjustments he wins the fight quite comfortably.
“Everything’s gotta come off the jab; use your long, straight shots. I know Johnny likes a body shot, but you’ve gotta be selective with that – you don’t have to rush and go hell for leather first round. You can have a look. Dave Allen’s output isn’t great. There might come a time where if he catches [Allen] he can put the pressure on a little bit more. You’ve got to be careful with David. He shook me a little bit when I switched off for a second. As switched on as you are on the outside, on the inside, you’ve got to really look after yourself. Really be careful of the short shots inside.”
Really look after himself and be careful of the noise, and the consequences that follow, if he loses, too.