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

[forcefraser]

Wardley v Babic

[dookus]

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'.

and most importantly, he has a chin. Hide would have not have stood up to very much of what Wardley soaked up.

[dookus]

Wardley v Babic

Would be fun while it lasted, but I'd be surprised if Babic can even put a dent in Wardley before he inevitably gets nailed

[coneye]

Just watched the full fight , What a cracker ,, are these guys world class , European level , British level , guess what it does'nt matter , this fight just proved that no matter what level boxers are , if you put on a even fight you will get a good to great fight , This was in the great dept .

For what its worth i had a draw less the point deduction making Wardley the winner 115-114 , but i think if i watch it 2 more times i'll come up with 2 different results

[punchers chance]

Just watched the full fight , What a cracker ,, are these guys world class , European level , British level , guess what it does'nt matter , this fight just proved that no matter what level boxers are , if you put on a even fight you will get a good to great fight , This was in the great dept .

For what its worth i had a draw less the point deduction making Wardley the winner 115-114 , but i think if i watch it 2 more times i'll come up with 2 different results

Wardley is hard to score isnt he?
He has these quiet spells when he does little and then bursts into life and judges have to decide whether the other guy's work for 2.5 mins was better than an explosive spell from Wardley.

[TheLeprechaun]

The optics on those blitzes of Wardley are just so good that he can win the round despite losing most of the round. He just goes on full blitz mode and its eye catching stuff and seems like he's made a dent in the opponent. He's just willing to go all out and risk getting ko'd in those moments and opponents so far have been shutting down when he does it.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Press Release | Wardley and Clarke’s Epic Heavyweight Clash Attracts Massive TV Audience On Sky Sports

LONDON, UK – Fabio Wardley and Frazer Clarke’s epic heavyweight clash recorded a massive television audience on Sky Sports this Easter Sunday making it one of the platform’s highest rating boxing events in the past decade.

Billed as ‘Bad Blood’, the unbeaten heavyweight rivals could not be separated on the night as they put everything on the line in a thrilling twelve round contest that is already being described as one of the greatest British heavyweight fights of all time.

The BOXXER promoted event, live from London’s O2 Arena, attracted a peak audience of 746,000 for the main event with an average audience of 438,000 tuning in across the four-hour broadcast and a reach of over 1.7million.

These impressive figures make Wardley and Clarke’s battle for the British and Commonwealth Titles the fifth most watched boxing event on Sky Sports in the last 10 years behind only Eubank-Williams, Shields-Marshall, Khan-Vargas and Taylor-Catterall, and the biggest audience for a heavyweight fight.

Fans were treated to first-class shoulder programming from Sky Sports in the build up to the event including a tense face-off hosted by Johnny Nelson in ‘The Gloves Are Off’ and a look behind the scenes into each fighters’ training camp in ‘Behind The Ropes’.

Adding to the excitement on the night, a stacked undercard featured a series of mouth-watering clashes that saw Chris Kongo overcome welterweight rival Florian Marku, Viddal Riley retain his English Cruiserweight Title against Mikael Lawal, Ben Whittaker drop and dominate Leon Wilings, Callum Simspon score a showreel knockout win over Dulla Mbabe, and Alen Babic stop Steve Robinson.

Ben Shalom, BOXXER Founder and CEO, said: “What we witnessed on Sunday was one of the greatest British heavyweight fights of all time. At BOXXER we are committed to growing the sport to new audiences and giving our fighters the biggest possible platform to perform. The numbers are incredible. It shows the huge potential and appetite for boxing in the UK and Ireland. We’ve had an amazing start to the year and we look forward to delivering more massive nights with unmissable action in 2024.”

Rob Selmes, Sky Sports Director of Rights, said: "It was great to see such a thrilling fight for the British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles, immense bravery from both fighters and huge numbers tuning in to watch. A compelling card was part of a fantastic weekend of live sport on Sky Sports, with millions of sports fans enjoying our coverage and being taken closer to all the action."

Having already delivered a series of spectacular events in 2024 including Jonas-Mayer, Buatsi-Azeez and Wardley-Clarke, the BOXXER and Sky Sports schedule continues on Saturday, May 11th with Lauren Pricechallenging Jessica McCaskill for Welterweight World Titles in Cardiff.

[maverick23]

Press Release | Wardley and Clarke’s Epic Heavyweight Clash Attracts Massive TV Audience On Sky Sports

LONDON, UK – Fabio Wardley and Frazer Clarke’s epic heavyweight clash recorded a massive television audience on Sky Sports this Easter Sunday making it one of the platform’s highest rating boxing events in the past decade.

Billed as ‘Bad Blood’, the unbeaten heavyweight rivals could not be separated on the night as they put everything on the line in a thrilling twelve round contest that is already being described as one of the greatest British heavyweight fights of all time.

The BOXXER promoted event, live from London’s O2 Arena, attracted a peak audience of 746,000 for the main event with an average audience of 438,000 tuning in across the four-hour broadcast and a reach of over 1.7million.

These impressive figures make Wardley and Clarke’s battle for the British and Commonwealth Titles the fifth most watched boxing event on Sky Sports in the last 10 years behind only Eubank-Williams, Shields-Marshall, Khan-Vargas and Taylor-Catterall, and the biggest audience for a heavyweight fight.

Fans were treated to first-class shoulder programming from Sky Sports in the build up to the event including a tense face-off hosted by Johnny Nelson in ‘The Gloves Are Off’ and a look behind the scenes into each fighters’ training camp in ‘Behind The Ropes’.

Adding to the excitement on the night, a stacked undercard featured a series of mouth-watering clashes that saw Chris Kongo overcome welterweight rival Florian Marku, Viddal Riley retain his English Cruiserweight Title against Mikael Lawal, Ben Whittaker drop and dominate Leon Wilings, Callum Simspon score a showreel knockout win over Dulla Mbabe, and Alen Babic stop Steve Robinson.

Ben Shalom, BOXXER Founder and CEO, said: “What we witnessed on Sunday was one of the greatest British heavyweight fights of all time. At BOXXER we are committed to growing the sport to new audiences and giving our fighters the biggest possible platform to perform. The numbers are incredible. It shows the huge potential and appetite for boxing in the UK and Ireland. We’ve had an amazing start to the year and we look forward to delivering more massive nights with unmissable action in 2024.”

Rob Selmes, Sky Sports Director of Rights, said: "It was great to see such a thrilling fight for the British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles, immense bravery from both fighters and huge numbers tuning in to watch. A compelling card was part of a fantastic weekend of live sport on Sky Sports, with millions of sports fans enjoying our coverage and being taken closer to all the action."

Having already delivered a series of spectacular events in 2024 including Jonas-Mayer, Buatsi-Azeez and Wardley-Clarke, the BOXXER and Sky Sports schedule continues on Saturday, May 11th with Lauren Pricechallenging Jessica McCaskill for Welterweight World Titles in Cardiff.

The numbers are a bit deceiving. I’m not disputing that they’re decent but they had it on several channels including Sky Showcase (formerly known as Sky One). It’s a channel that you don’t even need to have Sky Sports for. I normally watch Sky Sports through Now Tv but didn’t need to on Sunday as it was on Showcase which I get free on my BT package.

[jameswilson]

Wardley v Babic

Would be fun while it lasted, but I'd be surprised if Babic can even put a dent in Wardley before he inevitably gets nailed

Watching the Babic v Robinson fight I wondered what Robinson's reaction would be if Babic shouted 'if your heads in the same place in 10 seconds time it's gonna get hit by my huge telegraphed winging overhand right.'

Robinson -

[margaret thatcher]

wardley would smash babic

just watched babic-robinson............gawdt damn that was an ugly fight. robinson is a tom dallas lookalike with twice the chin at half the speed

[forcefraser]

Poor old Tom Dallas. He went from prospect to shellack fodder

[SeanBrennan]

Poor old Tom Dallas. He went from prospect to shellack fodder

what really confuses me is his namesake is now a top matchmaker

[dookus]

Wardley v Babic

Would be fun while it lasted, but I'd be surprised if Babic can even put a dent in Wardley before he inevitably gets nailed

Watching the Babic v Robinson fight I wondered what Robinson's reaction would be if Babic shouted 'if your heads in the same place in 10 seconds time it's gonna get hit by my huge telegraphed winging overhand right.'

Robinson -

That was grim viewing.

[Grilling Machine]

[Evander]

So many good things about this fight.

[JamesPhilips]

Poor old Tom Dallas. He went from prospect to shellack fodder

what really confuses me is his namesake is now a top matchmaker

It’s not the same guy?

[maverick23]

Poor old Tom Dallas. He went from prospect to shellack fodder

what really confuses me is his namesake is now a top matchmaker

It’s not the same guy?

Nope.

https://www.matchroomboxing.com/team/

[quickeyg]

Fabio Wardley

[JamesPhilips]

what really confuses me is his namesake is now a top matchmaker

It’s not the same guy?

Nope.

https://www.matchroomboxing.com/team/

Thanks. I just assumed. I mean Dallas is not a common name…. Seen Kevin Rooney as well on the team are Matchroom choosing their staff to have deliberately misleading names?

(I assume this is Kevin Rooney jr, Kevin Sr’s son…. Who did actually box pro https://boxrec.com/en/box-pro/568872 and https://boxrec.com/wiki/index.php/Kevin_Rooney_Jr)

[maverick23]

It’s not the same guy?

Nope.

https://www.matchroomboxing.com/team/

Thanks. I just assumed. I mean Dallas is not a common name…. Seen Kevin Rooney as well on the team are Matchroom choosing their staff to have deliberately misleading names?

(I assume this is Kevin Rooney jr, Kevin Sr’s son…. Who did actually box pro https://boxrec.com/en/box-pro/568872 and https://boxrec.com/wiki/index.php/Kevin_Rooney_Jr)

No worries. I thought it was the same guy initially too.

[handsofstone]

Same

[samwbr]

Same here. Then you see that pic

[SeanBrennan]

Poor old Tom Dallas. He went from prospect to shellack fodder

what really confuses me is his namesake is now a top matchmaker

It’s not the same guy?

No mate I thought it was for ages though

[SeanBrennan]

The fight review on BM YouTube channel is really worth a watch/listen

[KiwiRider]

Eddie's saying he wants to put Johnny Fisher in the mix with these guys.

Is Fisher ready though, and out of the two, Wardley seems a bit wrong for the Romford Bull?