‘If anyone in this sport finds losing easy to deal with, you really shouldn’t be doing it’

Frazer Clarke makes no excuses for his frightening loss last time out, which he had to process properly to move forward against Ebenezer Tetteh this weekend

- Alex Pattle

If you are an avid watcher of boxing, you’ll probably admit to falling into a familiar trap. It is easy to become desensitised at times, with violence gradually beginning to bring a strange mundanity. When Frazer Clarke was knocked out by Fabio Wardley in October, many fans were freed from that trap, although freedom felt rather frightening.

As Clarke’s eyes glazed over, and the heavyweight’s crushed cheekbone collapsed into itself, a stark reality was rendered: this sport hurts, it is dangerous, and it is unforgiving. And if you were one of those to have felt that unnerving quease in the aftermath of Clarke’s first-round defeat by Wardley, imagine – if you can – how Clarke’s family felt.

“For my close family, it was a bit of a reminder,” the Olympic bronze medalist tells The Independent. “So far for them, going to watch me fight has been a night out in Manchester or London – a day in London, lovely.

“Fabio 1 was a little bit scary, obviously some dodgy moments,” he says, recalling his March 2024 draw with his fellow Briton, in which Clarke hit the canvas. “‘Oh, it’s a little bit real, but he didn’t lose, it’s alright.’ But the second fight: ‘He’s in a hospital bed, having brain scans, he’s got a fractured cheekbone.’

“But that’s the reality of it, that’s what