Top super-heavyweight Frazer Clarke has relived his knife attack horror as he races to be fit for next year’s Commonwealth Games.
The last 12 months have been tough for the 26 year old from Burton-on-Trent.
He has been out of the ring through injuries since winning silver at the European Championships in June – and further back, he had his throat slashed last Christmas Eve while out in a nightclub.
Doctors said he was lucky to survive the attack that left him needing 14 stitches and a blood transfusion.
“It was packed everyone was drinking and there was a squabble over a spilled drink,” remembered Clarke.
“It turned into a fight and before I knew it there were five or six of them. I was talking to one of them and someone came in from the side and before I knew it I was on the floor.
“I bled a lot. I needed a blood transfusion and the doctors said if it came been an inch either side, I wouldn’t have made it.”
Clarke says nobody has been charged or arrested over the attack and ‘The Burton Banger’ added: “It shouldn’t have happened and it won’t happen again.
“Maybe there was a bit of jealousy involved. I have a personality and presence. Some people like it, others don’t.
“These things happen in small towns.”
Clarke further proved his resilience by winning silver at the European Championships – with one hand and on one leg !
He headed to the Ukraine with a hand injury and suffered a detached hamstring after slipping in the gym during the championship.
Both injuries required surgery and Clarke admits the last six months have been “very, very tough.”
He’s targeting a return to the ring in the World Series of Boxing in February – Clarke has an 8-0 record in WSB – and also hopes to go to a tournament before the Commonwealth Games gets underway in Australia in April.
“The goal is to be ready for that,” said Clarke, who’s sparred hundreds of rounds with Anthony Joshua at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield.
“It will be an achievement in itself just to get back to full fitness for the Commonwealth Games. It will be close, but I will make it.
“I haven’t been able to run or spar since June.
“I’ve just started punching again and in the next two or three weeks, I will start running again.
“I haven’t gone this long without a fight since I was about 13 years old and it’s been very, very tough.
“I’ve put quite a bit of weight on. I’m not exactly Tyson Fury, but I have got to get back into shape. I’m about 124 kgs at the moment and I box at around 112-114 kgs.”
Clarke says his long-term targets are the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 – and the world heavyweight championship.
“The Olympics is what I really want,” he said.
“I’ve seen people making mistakes, turning pro too early or too late and by the time I reach Tokyo I will have had another three years of sparring with AJ and I will be ready.
“There hasn’t really been any interest from the pros yet, but when I turn pro I will be 28, 29 and the way the pro game is now, if I get the right management I could be world champion after 10 fights.
“I could be world heavyweight champion by the time I’m 31.
“I don’t want a long, hard pro career. I want to spend five or six years making money – and then get out.
“If Joseph Parker can win the world heavyweight title, I’m sure I can.”
Parker narrowly beat Clarke in the 2010 Commonwealth championships in New Dehli, but since then, Clarke has established himself as one of the top super-heavyweights in the world.
Great Britain coach Richie Woodhall said during commentary of a World Series of Boxing fight that Clarke can be as good as Joshua and like his great friend and sparring partner, Clarke is convinced he will turn professional as the Olympic champion.
“There’s only two people, maybe three, in the world who can give me problems,” said Clarke, “and on my day, I can beat them.”
Those two or three include world champion Magomedrasul Medzhidov and Bakhodir Jalolov, the Uzbek ranked No 1 in the world by AIBA.
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