Frazer Clarke of Burton upon Trent suffered one of the nastiest cuts in Olympic boxing history earlier this week in his semi-final bout with Bakhodir Jalolov of Uzbekistan. The horrific injury to Clarke’s right eye was never going to be patched up in the corner and sure enough the fight was stopped in the third round. Clarke, who forced a standing count in the second round of the super-heavyweight fight with Jalolov, has to console himself with coming home from Tokyo with a bronze medal.
It’s some fine achievement by Clarke, who will turn 30 tomorrow, and he is now both feeling proud and looking ahead to “the next step.” This next step is going pro, and the 6’6” Clarke – who won gold at The Commonwealth Games in 2018 and silver at the European Championships the year before – has confirmed to talkSPORT how he will now go professional.
“It’s fantastic, it fills me with pride,” Clarke said to Michael Weadock. “The Frazier Clarke of ten years ago – if you asked him if he’d be an Olympic medallist, he’d have laughed at you. So to actually come this far and do it, it fills me with joy and pride. The next step I think everyone knows. People have been waiting for me to go pro for a few years I think. It’s come a year later than I would’ve liked it to, but the next step on the journey is definitely the professional route. I’m experienced now, I’ve been at the pinnacle of amateur boxing, I’ve got three of the four major medals. And I can go into the next step, start again at the bottom and work my way up.”
That bad cut may take some time to fully heal, but it will be a big event when Clarke boxes his pro debut. Who will Clarke sign up with? Will Clarke’s style and approach be suited to the pro game? At age 30, will Clarke have to get his pro career moving fast? Clarke follows British stars Anthony Joshua, who won gold at London 2012, and Joe Joyce, who captured silver at Rio 2016.
Can Clarke go on to become the next big thing of the heavyweight division? It will be interesting following Frazier’s career.
Starting at any age for an Olympian is nothing look at lomachanko he fought for a world title And got ripped but came right back fighting for a second and so on and so on and with 3 losses in 18 fights he’s all ready going into the hall of fame and set for life for money and fame.