Lennox Lewis has advised Frazer Clarke that he solely must “fix a couple of things” to beat Fabio Wardley of their extremely anticipated heavyweight title rematch.
After an epic draw of their struggle for Wardley’s British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles in March, the 2 will rematch on the bumper October 12 Sky Sports activities Field Workplace invoice, topped by Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol’s undisputed light-heavyweight conflict.
Three-time heavyweight world champion Lewis joined Clarke as he ready for the return bout to supply some steerage.
Lewis misplaced his heavyweight titles to Hasim Rahman in 2001 earlier than avenging the defeat with a knockout of his personal later that yr.
“For me, it was easy because I understood the mistake,” Lewis advised Clarke.
“It was like, ‘I do know what I did improper. I’ll go and proper it, after which come again even stronger’.
“For you, you are virtually there, bro. All it’s, is a bit of bit extra conditioning after which the gameplan, and also you’re there.
“I was very impressed with your fight, and said, ‘Second time around, just fix a couple of things’.”
Olympic bronze medallist Clarke was floored within the fifth spherical of the April bout, however fought again to take pleasure in intervals of success because the judges in the end scored the struggle a draw.
“I got back to that changing room and obviously the fight had ended in a draw, so I didn’t feel like he’d made it a draw, I felt like I threw it away,” Clarke mentioned to Lewis.
“Since that day, I’m not a big fan of watching myself back, but I’ve been hammered, I’ve seen so much of myself from my last fight, and I’ve not looked at me doing anything correct. All we’ve looked at is the mistakes I made.
“It is that small proportion the place you get punished within the struggle. Our pondering for this struggle is, if we remove the errors and construct on what we already had, we’re in a superb place.”
Lewis provides Clarke recommendation on managing expectations
Clarke additionally revealed to Lewis how he coped with excessive expectations from his skilled debut after coming back from Tokyo with an Olympic medal.
Earlier than going through Wardley, Clarke had comfortably gained all eight of his skilled bouts with six knockout wins, however a hard-fought bout meant he was capable of present his battling spirit alongside together with his boxing expertise on the O2 Enviornment in April.
“Straight after the Olympics, I signed with Boxxer and Sky Sports and I was on the TV all the time,” Clarke mentioned.
“I feel like it gave a certain expectation of me coming into the pro ranks and just be the finished article. And it was far from the truth because I just felt like I was starting again.
“I used to be making an attempt to not hearken to all that noise however generally this present day, it is exhausting to get away from it.”
Lewis, who won gold at the 1988 Olympics, agreed with Clarke that moving from the amateur to professional ranks is almost a career reset.
Lewis said: “You stuffed your cup up as an beginner champion, now you need to be an expert champion, so it is a refill of your cup.
“It isn’t going to come to you. You’ve got to put in the time, you’ve got to put in the effort, and then you’ve got to know what to work on.
“If you happen to’re boxing and your ft are in quicksand, that is no technique to field. You are not going to get too far that approach.
“All great heavyweights had great jabs, so you’ve got to develop that jab. Very important.”
Watch ‘Frazer Meets Lennox’ On Demand now.
Fabio Wardley’s enormous rematch with Frazer Clarke is on the epic Artur Beterbiev vs Dmitry Bivol invoice on Saturday October 12 stay on Sky Sports activities Field Workplace. Ebook Wardley v Clarke 2 and Beterbiev v Bivol now!