Fabio Wardley vs. Frazer Clarke | Sky Sports - 31 March 2024

[Bodyshot3]

First fight I have watched in a while....and definitely worth tuning in for
Wardley deserves to keep the belts, Frazer did not do enough as the challenger.

[joshj909]

[Ezzard]

Point deduction seemed harsh especially as Fabio was warned on 6 occassions about the backhand flick.

Top men.

[Glass Joe]

Steve Gray is a shocking ref and judge. The modern Terry Oconnor.

Really enjoyed the fight and look forward to a rematch maybe a sky box office event with Yarde - Batsi. Billam Smith - Riakporhe.

[goose 5]

I thought Wardley won it- excellent bout!

[Glass Joe]

Shame Clarke doesnt punch like a 19 stone heavyweight. Would probably have been a early night for him if he did.

[SeanBrennan]

Shame Clarke doesnt punch like a 19 stone heavyweight. Would probably have been a early night for him if he did.

I am still unsure how hard he does hit, could it be Fabio has a strong chin? I'm not saying either way, just wondering.

[Grilling Machine]

I had Clarke winning the early and late rounds, with Wardley winning most of the middle half, and felt he could've nicked the championship rounds with better pacing. I think he'll realise he tried too hard for the knockout in the first half and improve a bit. An excellent if brutal learning fight.

But I'd rather they don't rematch yet because I'd love to see Wardley-Anderson. They're both fresh enough to come back from a loss, have their own clear weaknesses, and the winner should earn a headline fight.

Jalolov's my first choice for Clarke next.

[margaret thatcher]

kubrat pulev is there for the taking

there's the euro title winner of granit shala vs zakhozhyi

joyce vs either would be cool

what about the ukranian who beat kash ali and gorman? i guess an 8-1 unknown ukranian might be a tough sell though...i woulda liked to see him as joyce's comeback opponent

feels like jalolov is never gonna fight anyone serious while going in and out of the ams. shame because he's very talented. does give me a slightly chinny vibe though. a strong klitschko resemblance being both offensively a powerhouse yet also timid at times

anderson's a bit of a mess in his personal life atm. although if he's focused i think he'd beat wardley and clarke. some of the best hw body punching in a while. he has a lot of tools that you dont see on many hws these days.

[KiwiRider]

I like the idea of Anderson vs Clarke, but I think Anderson is going to have a slower progression, and they won't take risks with him.
Joyce seems to be about the same sort of speed as Clarke, that would be interesting, but any of those quick mobile guys are wrong for him.
As for Wardley, he won me over, I wasn't sold on him beforehand. Its a really entertaining watch, because he is so raw and a bit unpredictable with uber heart and courage doing some of the leg work for his boxing prowess. Dunno where he goes from here but I happily watch.

[TheLeprechaun]

I'm not even sure what Wardleys game is. He's winning rounds where he does his big blitz attack. I'm sure it will overwhelm some. He's not hard to hit though and he's not coming in with great technical skills. He's got heart and grit and until his chin gets cracked he will be a force.

I don't see him wanting Frazer again. Not to say he would think hes going to lose. He will look to get on a Saudi bill against any ranked opponent and roll the dice there rather than slugging it out with Frazer again. Frazer should pick up the British, have some more learning fights and then have his own crack at it. Both guys are better off avoiding each other. They took too much out of each other. They might have very little left after another 12 rounds of that. Some very heavy punches connected on the chins of both fighters during the contest.

[Spud]

It was clearly a great fight.

But, it showed frailties in both of them.

Neither are world class

[margaret thatcher]

true but still plenty of opportunities left without being world class

[Glass Joe]

It was clearly a great fight.

But, it showed frailties in both of them.

Neither are world class

Not really many world class heavyweights in this day of age a lot near the end of their career or on the slide.

[jamesmcdonnell]

It was clearly a great fight.

But, it showed frailties in both of them.

Neither are world class

Not really many world class heavyweights in this day of age a lot near the end of their career or on the slide.

The heavyweight division is as bad as I can remember it being. Many of the current crop are big fat lumps, who can barely sustain 3-4 rounds at pace before they start to gas. Many are also old, the average age of the top 50 is 32 according to boxrec, which is pretty shocking. There's only 10 fighters under 30 in the entire top 50, which is pretty dire.

You really don't need to be world class any more to get into contention, the standards in the division have slipped badly since the 90's and 2000's.

Can you imagine the likes of Holyfield in the current setup - he'd absolutely batter everybody out there, Fury and Joshua included, maybe Usyk would survive, but no chance he would be able to beat Holyfield, Holyfield wasn't even the best of his era.

[joshj909]

It was clearly a great fight.

But, it showed frailties in both of them.

Neither are world class

Not really many world class heavyweights in this day of age a lot near the end of their career or on the slide.

The heavyweight division is as bad as I can remember it being. Many of the current crop are big fat lumps, who can barely sustain 3-4 rounds at pace before they start to gas. Many are also old, the average age of the top 50 is 32 according to boxrec, which is pretty shocking. There's only 10 fighters under 30 in the entire top 50, which is pretty dire.

You really don't need to be world class any more to get into contention, the standards in the division have slipped badly since the 90's and 2000's.

Can you imagine the likes of Holyfield in the current setup - he'd absolutely batter everybody out there, Fury and Joshua included, maybe Usyk would survive, but no chance he would be able to beat Holyfield, Holyfield wasn't even the best of his era.

Drug testing has also increased since the 90s. Holyfield being in the shape he was in was down to that, not to say he wouldn't tear up today, but the fitness and physical abilities of some of the guys back then can only be matched by a few today, clean or dirty. That's not to say that some of them shouldn't get in better shape....

[cormack]

It was clearly a great fight.

But, it showed frailties in both of them.

Neither are world class

Not really many world class heavyweights in this day of age a lot near the end of their career or on the slide.

The heavyweight division is as bad as I can remember it being. Many of the current crop are big fat lumps, who can barely sustain 3-4 rounds at pace before they start to gas. Many are also old, the average age of the top 50 is 32 according to boxrec, which is pretty shocking. There's only 10 fighters under 30 in the entire top 50, which is pretty dire.

You really don't need to be world class any more to get into contention, the standards in the division have slipped badly since the 90's and 2000's.

Can you imagine the likes of Holyfield in the current setup - he'd absolutely batter everybody out there, Fury and Joshua included, maybe Usyk would survive, but no chance he would be able to beat Holyfield, Holyfield wasn't even the best of his era.

" Can you imagine the likes of Holyfield in the current setup - he'd absolutely batter everybody out there, Fury and Joshua included, maybe Usyk would survive, but no chance he would be able to beat Holyfield, Holyfield wasn't even the best of his era. "

Holyfield would get found out by VADA or UKAD and so as much as I like Evander and backed him to beat Tyson you have to put things into perspective .

[jamesmcdonnell]

Not really many world class heavyweights in this day of age a lot near the end of their career or on the slide.

The heavyweight division is as bad as I can remember it being. Many of the current crop are big fat lumps, who can barely sustain 3-4 rounds at pace before they start to gas. Many are also old, the average age of the top 50 is 32 according to boxrec, which is pretty shocking. There's only 10 fighters under 30 in the entire top 50, which is pretty dire.

You really don't need to be world class any more to get into contention, the standards in the division have slipped badly since the 90's and 2000's.

Can you imagine the likes of Holyfield in the current setup - he'd absolutely batter everybody out there, Fury and Joshua included, maybe Usyk would survive, but no chance he would be able to beat Holyfield, Holyfield wasn't even the best of his era.

Drug testing has also increased since the 90s. Holyfield being in the shape he was in was down to that, not to say he wouldn't tear up today, but the fitness and physical abilities of some of the guys back then can only be matched by a few today, clean or dirty. That's not to say that some of them shouldn't get in better shape....

Evading drug tests has become more sophisticated over the years, I don't for one moment believe that the sport is cleaner now than it was then. I think if anything too many fighter have packed on muscle as well as fat and as a result they are slower and with less stamina.

Look at Wardley and Clarke, neither of those guys were particularly jacked, and they were able to fight at a pretty good lick.

[jamesmcdonnell]

Not really many world class heavyweights in this day of age a lot near the end of their career or on the slide.

The heavyweight division is as bad as I can remember it being. Many of the current crop are big fat lumps, who can barely sustain 3-4 rounds at pace before they start to gas. Many are also old, the average age of the top 50 is 32 according to boxrec, which is pretty shocking. There's only 10 fighters under 30 in the entire top 50, which is pretty dire.

You really don't need to be world class any more to get into contention, the standards in the division have slipped badly since the 90's and 2000's.

Can you imagine the likes of Holyfield in the current setup - he'd absolutely batter everybody out there, Fury and Joshua included, maybe Usyk would survive, but no chance he would be able to beat Holyfield, Holyfield wasn't even the best of his era.

" Can you imagine the likes of Holyfield in the current setup - he'd absolutely batter everybody out there, Fury and Joshua included, maybe Usyk would survive, but no chance he would be able to beat Holyfield, Holyfield wasn't even the best of his era. "

Holyfield would get found out by VADA or UKAD and so as much as I like Evander and backed him to beat Tyson you have to put things into perspective .

I've heard from a few people involved in sports that basically the only people who get caught in drug testing, are the ones who don't follow the protocols properly.

[margaret thatcher]

is mike moorer better than everyone around today? he beat holyfield.. bert cooper had prime holy sagging all over the place too

of course holy ranks above the active crop today, but be careful when you say someone would never be beat, would easily smash everyone, etc boxing can surprise

even when looking back at many undoubted atgs, you can go through their record and find many competitive fights with seemingly much lesser opposition. joe louis was getting shook up and dropped by 2 ton galento for example. ppl always get too way over the top when discussing hypotheticals. even the greats are human

[jamesmcdonnell]

is mike moorer better than everyone around today? he beat holyfield.. bert cooper had prime holy sagging all over the place too

of course holy ranks above the active crop today, but be careful when you say someone would never be beat, would easily smash everyone, etc boxing can surprise

even when looking back at many undoubted atgs, you can go through their record and find many competitive fights with seemingly much lesser opposition. joe louis was getting shook up and dropped by 2 ton galento for example. ppl always get too way over the top when discussing hypotheticals. even the greats are human

Of course, my statement was a little simplistic.

[JC]

It was clearly a great fight.

But, it showed frailties in both of them.

Neither are world class

Not really many world class heavyweights in this day of age a lot near the end of their career or on the slide.

The heavyweight division is as bad as I can remember it being. Many of the current crop are big fat lumps, who can barely sustain 3-4 rounds at pace before they start to gas. Many are also old, the average age of the top 50 is 32 according to boxrec, which is pretty shocking. There's only 10 fighters under 30 in the entire top 50, which is pretty dire.

You really don't need to be world class any more to get into contention, the standards in the division have slipped badly since the 90's and 2000's.

Can you imagine the likes of Holyfield in the current setup - he'd absolutely batter everybody out there, Fury and Joshua included, maybe Usyk would survive, but no chance he would be able to beat Holyfield, Holyfield wasn't even the best of his era.

The mid 00s was far worse IMO. Here’s the Ring top 10 from 2005

Title Vacant
Chris Byrd
Hasim Rahman
James Toney
Lamon Brewster
John Ruiz
Monte Barrett
Calvin Brock
Wladimir Klitschko
Samuel Peter
Nicolay Valuev

Between Lennox retiring and Fury beating Wlad there were hardly any entertaining HW fights.

I’ve enjoyed the last 10 years at HW.

[margaret thatcher]

david haye will save the division, i believe

[jamesmcdonnell]

Not really many world class heavyweights in this day of age a lot near the end of their career or on the slide.

The heavyweight division is as bad as I can remember it being. Many of the current crop are big fat lumps, who can barely sustain 3-4 rounds at pace before they start to gas. Many are also old, the average age of the top 50 is 32 according to boxrec, which is pretty shocking. There's only 10 fighters under 30 in the entire top 50, which is pretty dire.

You really don't need to be world class any more to get into contention, the standards in the division have slipped badly since the 90's and 2000's.

Can you imagine the likes of Holyfield in the current setup - he'd absolutely batter everybody out there, Fury and Joshua included, maybe Usyk would survive, but no chance he would be able to beat Holyfield, Holyfield wasn't even the best of his era.

The mid 00s was far worse IMO. Here’s the Ring top 10 from 2005

Title Vacant
Chris Byrd
Hasim Rahman
James Toney
Lamon Brewster
John Ruiz
Monte Barrett
Calvin Brock
Wladimir Klitschko
Samuel Peter
Nicolay Valuev

Between Lennox retiring and Fury beating Wlad there were hardly any entertaining HW fights.

I’ve enjoyed the last 10 years at HW.

I'd say there's not a lot in it either way to be fair.

[Bodyshot3]

Would very happily watch Wardley v Clarke again......it kind of got me right back to boxing.
And that was despite an absolute cruiser snoozefest on the undercard and a welterweight fight that was only okay.

Wardley is a compelling watch because he blows so very hot and cold.

Clarke seemed a bit thrown by all of this.....he could fight steady at times/was building up some momentum but then Wardley would suddenly ramp up the pace and was hitting him from all kinds of angles.

There's more than a bit of Hide in Wardley I think (without Herbie's borderline insanity) in the sense that he throws all kinds of good dynamite and can absolutely leave a bigger/heavier guy utterly dazed-reeling.

But then there are the dangerous fall-offs when he very visibly needs to recover and gets repeatedly tagged and often has to try and blitz his way out of some serious-mounting trouble. Clarke, to his credit, was straight onto that.

Wardley fighting at a steadier tempo? Definitely less entertaining and it possibly removes his main weapon which is ripping in all kinds of bombs and potentially finishing things off. How they keep most of this but ensure Fabio is better able to defend himself and not walked down will involve some interesting adjustments.

It helps of course that Wardley is a way bigger unit than Hide and a bona fide heavy, and not so 'emotional'.