Frazer Clarke: “The best part of my career is coming up. I wouldn’t say no to any fight.” 

Frazer Clarke: “The best part of my career is coming up. I wouldn’t say no to any fight.”     

Fight Week has been a long time coming for Frazer Clarke. We last saw Clarke inside a boxing ring in April when he blitzed Ebenezer Tetteh inside a round in Birmingham.

Clarke should have returned last month, but an injury to Jeamie ‘TKV’ Tshikeva left him having to wait a little longer for his third crack at the British heavyweight title. “It’s frustrating, but I have been around long enough in boxing to know that these things happen,” Clarke told FightPost a few weeks after the initial postponement of that scheduled October date. “If it’s a genuine injury, you just have to get on with it. I wouldn’t expect to fight if I wasn’t 100% ready. I am one of the most relaxed people you will meet in boxing. I just take everything in my stride. It is frustrating because I was looking forward to fighting. I was ready physically and mentally. But all that happens if you get too frustrated is waste energy.”

Clarke had finished the hard yards of his training camp when he got the news that his fight with Tshikeva was delayed. “It is hard,” Clarke admitted. “You go through camp, do all the hard weeks, and I look forward to the taper. But unfortunately, I had to go to that dark place again.”

The fight on Saturday will be the very first offering in the new Boxxer/BBC partnership. “I’m chuffed for Boxxer,” Clarke says. “I am chuffed for the public. I am very proud to be on the BBC; it’s a great channel. I have watched the BBC my whole life. I was very happy on Sky. It’s a great platform. I loved the people I was working with, and I am forever grateful for it, and I cherish all the memories. So the BBC is something new.

“It got to a point where I wasn’t bothered if I was boxing in front of fifteen people in the back garden. I just want to be in the ring. My focus is on winning the British heavyweight title. I am happy to be fighting on the BBC, but I am more pleased for the people who work for Boxxer. They have gone through the mill a little bit. It’s a long, dark business at times, and it’s run by people who have been in the sport for a long time. I understand it, there is a new outfit on the scene, which is Boxxer. They have made some mistakes, but they have done some good things. Sky and Boxxer had some amazing nights together. But I am glad to see that they have got another TV deal. They are a good bunch, and they work really hard, and they deserve it.”

Clarke hopes that he can lift the British title at the third time of asking, a belt that clearly means a lot to him. “When I look at names like Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury and Henry Cooper, there are some great fighters who have won the British heavyweight title. I was in the amateur game for such a long time, and up there with all my achievements is the ABA title. This is the pro version of that. Before you conquer everywhere else, you have to conquer your own country first. There are some great fighters in the country, so it won’t make the number one, but it’s a proud achievement, and the Lonsdale belt is a beautiful belt.”

Despite being the betting favourite, Clarke isn’t underestimating Tshikeva. His opponent was deemed exceptionally unfortunate in a losing fight that was riddled with controversy against David Adeleye last time out. Tshikeva was seemingly on his way to an upset victory.

“I thought he was winning the fight and boxing well,” Clarke told me. “He showed improvement, and I think he will improve again. I expect him to come in super-fit and super-ready. I have had two cracks at the British title, and it’s never easy. And I don’t expect it to be.”

Clarke will hope it is third time lucky in Derby. Two fights with Fabio Wardley that ended very differently for him. After one of the greatest British heavyweight title fights we have ever seen in March 2024, a draw that could have gone either way, Clarke was stopped inside a round in their immediate rematch. But a ‘comeback’ win over Tetteh earlier this year got the 34-year-old back in the win column. Many demons were conquered that night.

“I think there was relief, mixed with a bit of frustration,” Clarke says of his first-round stoppage victory over Tetteh. “I just really wanted to perform. There were so many emotions. I just felt the whole boxing world had written me off after one defeat, like I was the first heavyweight to ever get knocked out. As much as you compete with yourself, you do have some people to prove wrong. I think it was a good step to do that. I think it was a little statement of intent.”

Clarke is focusing on the challenge in front of him, but a win opens up many possibilities for him. “I think the David Adeleye fight is a great fight for me. There is a natural rivalry. But if I am honest, Adeleye and Dave Allen are coming off bad defeats. They hardly won any rounds in their last fights. But saying that, Allen has recovered his career, and he is a popular figure, so it would probably be a big fight. But it would be a bit of a backward step, I have been there and already beaten him. It’s not really of any interest. I am not trying to put him down. I just think I am a level above him. But we love a domestic heavyweight fight, don’t we? So, the public will have the final say, I think.”

“I know what I am doing in the gym; I am not looking to wait around,” Clarke added. “I have just seen Arslanbek Makhmudov beat Dave Allen. I would take that fight in a heartbeat. The British title can catapult you, so we will see what opportunities are there after the fight. The best part of my career is coming up. I wouldn’t say no to any fight.”     

Photo Credit: Boxxer