Amateur boxer Frazer Clarke aiming high

The super-heavyweight is keen to take his boxing career one step at a time with his first aim to finally win the ABA title before aiming for International medals and super-stardom as a fully-fledged professional boxer.

Clarke said: “So far my biggest achievement would be boxing for my country and being a member of the squad. It’s a great feeling to represent your country. And what I want to achieve is an ABA title then as many international medals as possible.

“The Commonwealth and Olympic medals would be a dream and hopefully with a lot of hard work one day I will achieve these things in the amateur ranks.

“Then as a pro I would like it all from British level to World Heavyweight Champion. I believe anything is possible with hard work and belief.”

Clarke is clearly ambitious and strives to achieve the highest accolades in Boxing and follow in the footsteps of many amateur and professional greats. He admits there are many boxers from over the years that have been inspirational in different ways and been a role model to him and other young boxers hoping to reach the pinnacle of the sport.

He said: “I have so many boxing inspirations from Muhammed Ali to Floyd Mayweather. I can’t put my finger on one because there are so many. Marvellous Margin Hagler is probably the one for me I loved the way he used to train and declare war. I also loved the way Ali carried himself and the charisma that he displayed. There are so many inspiring role models that have been in the sport.

“My biggest inspiration for me in boxing is my family and my girlfriend. There’s no better feeling than making them proud, especially my grandparents they are very proud of me and I enjoy making them proud and seeing them happy. But not just them my whole family inspire me.”

Clarke says he first became interested in Boxing when he started watching the big Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson with his father. As a result he joined Burton Amateur Boxing Club and started to train regularly but struggled to find opponents due to his larger size which held him back a little.

“I first started to show an interest in boxing when I was around ten years old as my father and I used to watch the Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson fights,” Clarke said. “I started to train when I was eleven but due to me being big for my age it was hard for me to find an opponent so my first competitive bout didn’t come until I was fourteen, which I won with a second round knockout.”

And Clarke believes Amateur Boxing in particular could be publicised more to encourage greater interest in the sport although he feels the well-publicised spat between David Haye and Dereck Chisora may have tarnished the sport’s image to those who don’t really follow the sport much.

He admitted: “I don’t think Amateur Boxing is publicised enough but it is improving which is a good thing. After Haye and Chisora got into a fight at a press conference I think it did tarnish the look of Boxing to those who don’t know the sport.

“But anyone that does know Boxing knows that their actions went against everything that boxers stand for.”