By Mark Baldwin
IT WAS just sixty minutes removed from a brutal back-and-forth war that took both men to the brink. A fight that took away plenty from both. Just how much we will find out in just a few short weeks.
You wouldn’t have known what Fabio Wardley and Frazer Clarke had been through when they, at different times, took their seats at the post-fight press conference. Their faces looked relatively unmarked. Even Wardley had the features of someone who had just nipped out for a sandwich at the local convenience store and not a prizefighter who had just engaged in a pulsating bloody battle just over an hour earlier.
A fight that left his face a crimson mess. An old annoying recurring nose injury that splattered blood everywhere, even at the faintest of touches from the former Olympian.
A bloodied Fabio Wardley during his heavyweight fight against Frazer Clarke at The O2 Arena on March 31, 2024 in London, England (James Chance/Getty Images)
They attended the obligatory press conference at different intervals. Both had been cleaned up. There were no clear visible signs of battle. At least not from a few feet away. The inner scars couldn’t be seen. Only felt by the two fighters and imagined by everyone else in that small, cold back room. Wardley and Clarke would have experienced a different type of darkness on that early spring evening.
The awaiting press were respectful and appreciative of what they had served up. Thirty-six minutes trading punches for the British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles. The judges couldn’t split them. For the Wardley camp, there was relief.
And plenty of it. Clarke had regrets that he didn’t quite get the job done when he looked on the brink of doing so at several points of their thoroughly absorbing contest at the O2 Arena in March.
“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,” Clarke told me a month or so after his savage, unrelenting affair with Wardley.
But he, too, would have tasted little signs of defeat. Climbing off the canvas for the first time in his fledgling professional career would have been a humbling and sober experience for the Olympic medallist. Maybe that’s what made it so brutally special. Neither fighter would allow themselves to be defeated. It had a Rocky-like feel to it but without any scripted pantomime. This was about as real as it gets.
Fabio Wardley and Frazer Clarke go to war at The O2 Arena on March 31, 2024 in London, England (James Chance/Getty Images)
There were immediate calls for them to run it straight back. I wasn’t so sure. I thought they might have been better going in another direction. Their bodies would have probably thanked them if they had. Careers are shortened with what they gave and took in London. Could a rematch even come close to matching that titanic first encounter?
I questioned if either could possibly force their bodies to extract the same level of intensity. Unfinished business it might be. But I contemplated if another bruising fight between the two brave heavyweights would effectively finish them as top-flight heavyweight contenders. Sometimes, you are better off leaving things as they are. Both could have moved on without each other with their reputations enhanced because of what they did in that millennium ring.
But Wardley and Clarke will indeed be running it back next month. The Saudi setting will reward them far more handsomely this time. They are prizefighters, after all. They will simply go where the most money is. You can’t blame either for that simple fact of life.
But there still will be something missing the second time around. It should be centre stage. The main attraction, and not sitting so comfortably, lower down the card with the crowd not giving the fight or the fighters the attention their skills and effort deserve.
But despite this tired old scribe still craving the last semblance of tradition, money talks, and Wardley and Clarke are not going to take a fraction of the money just to please the always grumbling outsiders. The bank balance will be more pleasing of the decision to take the show on the road.
Wardley and Clarke will undoubtedly give everything they have once again next month. In truth, they might have to give a little bit more. Both will look to improve. Both will have seen the mistakes they made in the first fight. Victory will surely hinge on the finer margins of what, if any, improvement can be made. It will be another fight that will test the resolve of both. Hopefully, everybody present will be appreciative of what they will see.