After Broadcaster Sky Sports Were Extremely Disappointed With The Frazer Clarke Opponent Mismatch In September, BOXXER Look To Step Clarke Up Oct 29
Unbeaten Burton Heavyweight Frazer Clarke (3-0) scored a first-round KO on the Smith Mwakinyo undercard in what Sky Sports Boxing commentators labelled a “complete mismatch”.
Commentators were heavily critical of the fight, which they referred to as a ‘terrible match’ indicating promoter BOXXER/Clarke’s team should be held to account for allowing such an uncompetitive fight to take place.
Frazer Clarke also felt someone should be held responsible for the “dangerous” matchmaking. Clarke told Sky Sports “That’s not acceptable. People have got to do better”. BOXXER‘s Ben Shalom claimed to IFL TV that the mismatch was not his fault in his most recent interview.
Shalom shifted the blame to Frazer Clarke’s management team (258 MGT) for turning down better opponents. “We can only put so many opponents to his management team, if they’re going to turn down opponents what can (we do)?”
Clarke Return Date Confirmed, Sky Sports Call For Better Opposition
Sources tell NoSmokeBoxing that Sky Sports were extremely disappointed with the mismatch that took place on Saturday and have demanded that BOXXER make a significant step up for Clarke in his next bout.
Clarke returns Oct 29 in Birmingham on the undercard of the WBA eliminator bout between Hughie Fury and Michael Hunter. It is no secret that BOXXER paid over the odds to secure Frazer Clarke to their stable but with 258 Management turning down better opposition, it has been difficult to get any significant fight out of him.
The only acceptable opposition Clarke has been in with was Ariel Estaben Bracamonte and that wasn’t an easy match to make either. The Argentinian was a late replacement opponent for an unknown fighter that pulled out.
NSB has been reliably informed that 258 Management actually rejected the fight initially but broadcaster Sky Sports insisted on that match or Clarke wouldn’t fight on that card at all.
Will There Be Attempts For Frazer Clarke To Step Up On October 29?
Due to Sky Sport’s pressure for better matches, BOXXER immediately made an offer to Polish journeymen boxer Kamil Sokolowski to fight Clarke on Oct 29. Sokolowski is well respected in the boxing world for being the perfect early acid test for prospects. The Polish heavyweight beat George Fox in December of last year and the majority of fans believe he beat David Adeleye eight months earlier.
Offering a fight to Sokolowski for Clarke at just 3-0 shows real intent from BOXXER to match Clarke respectably. Unfortunately, this bout will not materialise for Oct 29 due to an injury sustained by Sokolowski in his latest contest that has ruled him out of fighting on that date.
Additional sources inform NoSmokeBoxing that their are multiple other competent heavyweights that have made or will make approaches to BOXXER to fight Frazer Clarke on Oct 29. NoSmokeBoxing cannot name them at this time but hopes to publicise atleast one of them in the next week.
Whether these macthes materialise or not is yet to be seen as of now but BOXXER/Sky must do better in matching their novice prospects. A point also made by the prestigious Boxing News earlier this week.
“It wasn’t just Clarke vs Tsvetkov, however. That was no anomaly or exception to the rule. This was just the latest in a growing number of mismatches taking place on Boxxer/Sky Sports shows, Shalom is right, they really must try to do better.”
Elliot Worsell For Boxing News
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