Frazer Clarke returns on Sunday in Birmingham: ‘As quickly as I might eat meals once more, I wished to spar’

There are few emotions in sport worse than shedding a boxing match.

There may be little worse in boxing than shedding by knockout, and shedding by knockout early in a struggle is extra merciless nonetheless.

For Frazer Clarke the first-round defeat he suffered in opposition to Fabio Wardley of their rematch final October was the sum of all these fears.

“Losing is one thing, losing after the way the first fight was, which I felt I won, is another thing,” he informed Sky Sports activities.

“Dropping on such a card, Bivol-Beterbiev in Riyadh, my greatest struggle up to now for the British title, in opposition to Fabio Wardley… We’ve got a pure rivalry.

“Losing in those circumstances, that was difficult to take. As a competitor it’s the worst.”

To these watching Clarke from outdoors the ropes the knockout was horrifying to see. The punch Wardley landed exerted large drive. It left Clarke’s jaw wobbling in an alien style, so dangerous was it that it got here as a reduction to search out out later that he had solely suffered a fractured bone unusually excessive up on the face.

“Once I came out of the brain scan in Saudi and I was greeted by someone that could speak English and another doctor and they were smiling and they said your brain is absolutely fine. The relief in me, it was unbelievable,” he recalled.

“I felt amazing even though I had a dent in my head, just to know there were no serious issues.

“I have been there earlier than. I have been in that place earlier than. I do know I can come again from it.”

As soon as the bone had healed, he wanted to test it out. He was determined to spar as soon as possible. Clarke went into camp with elite heavyweight Joseph Parker. Taking a full-bodied shot from the world-class New Zealander let Clarke know he was where he needed to be in his recovery.

“They reignited one thing inside me. Seeing the best way they act and the professionalism and the extent they’re at, that basically helped encourage me,” the Burton man said. “As quickly as I might eat meals once more [after the injury] and my face was on the mend I used to be dying to spar once more.

“Real champions go and do what’s needed, what’s necessary, that’s getting back in the gym, learn again.

“That is an unforgiving sport. It is nothing I did not already know.”

His comeback begins on Sunday when he fights Ebenezer Tetteh on the Ben Whittaker vs Liam Cameron rematch undercard, reside on Sky Sports activities.

“We know he [Tetteh] fought Daniel Dubois a while ago but he was different then. I think as he’s become maturer he’s become more solid. He’s quite reckless. Never comes to sit down, always come to win,” Clarke mentioned.

“He doesn’t come to fall over. He gives as good as he gets. He’s been in there with some good names and will just let me know where I’m at.”

Clarke has no qualms about swapping the massive sparring gloves for the smaller skilled gloves on struggle evening. He’s prepared for the ache that would come his approach.

“I’m accustomed to being punched in the face. That’s the truth of it. I’ve been doing it for so long and it’s unfathomable and it’s inhuman to so many normal people. To be hit in the face for a normal person is the worst thing in the world. I’ve been doing it for the longest, I don’t like it never, but it happens. I’m just hardened to it,” he mentioned.

Clarke’s ambition burns simply as brightly because it ever did.

“If you offered me Fabio Wardley III it would have been yes straight away. That’s just the person I am. I’m a very proud person,” the Olympic super-heavyweight bronze medallist mentioned.

“When adversity happens, you’ve got two choices, you either run from it or run to it. And I’m definitely one of them, I’ll get stuck back in again.”

Watch Frazer Clarke on the Ben Whittaker vs Liam Cameron rematch undercard on Sunday, reside on Sky Sports activities.