Frazer Clarke: "After what Fabio and I did last time, we deserve to be the stars of our own show."
It was one of those fights. A fight and a night that will live long in the memory. One of the greatest ever fights seen inside a British ring. Even labelling it a Fight of the Year contender doesn't do it justice. It was a privilege to be ringside at the O2 Arena in London in March. Two fighters who gave everything, and a little bit more for the British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles.
Fabio Wardley and Frazer Clarke fought themselves to a standstill. A fight where neither fighter deserved to lose. And neither did. The judges couldn't split them. Wardley retained his baubles. Clarke left thinking what might have been. At multiple times he seemed a punch or two away from victory, only for his incrediblely brave opponent to somehow find what he needed to not only survive, but to unleash enough punches to come so close to beating the former Olympian. It was breathtaking in its ferocity and brutality.
"At the time it was happening, I knew it was good," Clarke told me over Zoom. "I am not naive. It wasn't one way. There were moments when it turned. But I look back now, and I see it as an opportunity missed. I had him going so many times, but I didn't have the knowledge or the experience to change the gear in the right way. But I knew it was something good, the way I got knocked down, all the blood and the shots that were landing. He had his moments. I had my moments. But when I am in it, I am not thinking, oh my god, this is an epic fight. But I can't go to the shops without someone telling me how unbelievable that fight was."
All the pre-fight words were forgotten in the immediate aftermath. Respect was hard-earned. Several months on, that respect remains.
"I knew he was going to be tough. He's had a tough upbringing. So I knew that right from the start. He was tough, but it didn't surprise me because I knew he would be. We have both got plenty of balls. He's got it, and I don't mind saying that, and I've got it. That was always going to make for a good fight."
Clarke views the fight with Wardley as the one that got away. Seemingly so close to victory. An opponent covered in his own blood and fighting exhaustion in the second half of the fight. But Clarke couldn't quite find the finishing punch.
"Sometimes I think I looked for the perfect shot," Clarke says in reflection. "When I had him going a couple of times, instead of going for volume, I was looking for the perfect punch to put him away. But if I had just stepped on the gas, the referee would have jumped in."
Clarke knew that he wouldn't be found wanting in the heart department. He has proved himself many times over his long amateur career, even if some questioned many things about his professional resume prior to his moment of truth with Wardley. But he admitted there were inner doubts about going the twelve-round championship distance.
"The only thing I learned was the distance thing," Clarke told FightPost. "If I'd had another ten-rounder or a twelve-rounder, I would have won the fight fairly comfortably. I did have that question in my head about the twelve rounds. How to do the twelve rounds. So that was definitely there. But in terms of the gut check, the heart and the desire you can speak to anyone from my amateur days, you only have to look at that fight with Joe Joyce, it's never even been a question. I have been beaten many times, but I have never lost by being out-hearted by anyone. It's either in you or it's not. There is no quit in me. In anything.
"Fabio did say in our press conference that going six rounds with Dave Allen isn't enough to prepare to go in against me. It was enough because I still thought I won the fight. That fight and the one with Mariusz Wach were both good tests. But with Fabio, there are things coming back at you. The only way I could replicate that was in sparring. I had three or four people sparring with me, and they were coming in fresh every round. The instructions to them were to try and take my head off."
Despite the confidence he quite rightly held in his own abilities, the doubts lingered from the often fickle and worse, hard-to-please boxing fanbase. But even the harshest of critics would have been impressed by what Clarke served up at the O2 Arena. But he isn't resting on his laurels.
"I know where I have got to change," Clarke says. "I can improve so much on everything. I am a sponge, and there are not many fighters who can analyse a fight like I can. We know what we have to work on, and we will do that. I was fit, but I know that I have to be even fitter. For those kinds of fights, you have to go above and beyond, and I will do that."
A rematch seemed inevitable after that brutal war in March. Unfinished business in many ways. Talks are ongoing. Multiple options are in play. But while there was talk of the return meeting between Wardley and Clarke going on the big Wembley show in September, that does now appear to be off the table after this week's announcement of who will be on the card. The names of Frazer Clarke and Fabio Wardley were missing from the big reveal.
But with Boxxer planning a big show at the O2 Arena on August 31st, with the rematch an obvious option to headline that card. Clarke is certainly of the belief that a second fight between him and Wardley deserves to take centre stage.
"After what Fabio and I did last time, we deserve to be the stars of our own show. I know the British public, and when they see a grudge match and the way it lit up like it did, they will want to see it again."
Photo Credit: Lawrence Lustig/Boxxer
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