“It was one of them, I just threw it and I didn’t really feel it,” recalls Frazer Clarke. “I just saw him fall. Those shots are always the best ones, and you know that once you land them kind of shots, it’s hard for anyone to overcome them. I definitely knew that he was going to struggle after that because I could see his legs. He was all unsteady on his legs.”

After just 1 minute and 52 seconds of the first round against Ebenezer Tetteh, Clarke had pulled a chair back up at boxing’s heavyweight table and re-entered the discussion.

Since last October, when stopped in a devastating round by Fabio Wardley, Clarke has had to answer questions, internally and externally, about what such a violent finish meant for his future.

He answered with a similarly destructive KO of the outgunned Tetteh, who in his previous fight had done seven rough-and-ready rounds with Dillian Whyte.

The first right hand that caused Tetteh to unravel cannoned off his head and sent a cracking sound into the bp pulse LIVE Arena in Birmingham, England.
“I heard it,” said Clarke. “When you do land them shots, sometimes it can be like, you land them and you don’t understand the effect. But when I landed this one, I heard the crunch, and you sort of feel it travel down your arm, so I knew it was a good shot.”

Clarke flew in and forced the stoppage with his follow-up barrage, and there were strange scenes when Tetteh protested the end, seemingly unaware of the damage that had been inflicted upon him.

Some ringsiders thought Tetteh had not even realized he had been down in the fight.

And Africa’s Tetteh had come for a battle. He let bombs go from the start, perhaps hoping to capitalize on any vulnerabilities or anxieties Clarke might have felt after what happened against Wardley in Saudi Arabia last year.

Clarke had watched tape and seen different versions of Tetteh, including the one who came to fight against the likes of Whyte and Sergey Kuzmin. And when Clarke saw his opponent during fight week, he thought Tetteh looked in better shape than he had appeared in those fights.

“In the first 20 seconds of the fight, he threw the right-hand uppercut and I thought, ‘Oh my god, he really is coming to win.’ After that, I really switched on and I had to go to work, and I got the job done.”

Clarke, a former Team Great Britain Olympian, thought Tetteh’s fast start – which eventually led to his hasty downfall – was based on his belief that Clarke would either suffer from stage fright or be gun-shy post-Wardley. 

“He definitely thought that, and I don’t think I did have stage fright, but I did think for the first, probably, 30 seconds, it did feel a little bit alien – probably just because I’d been out of the ring for six months. I don’t think it had anything to do with the previous result, but it was just that I was back in the ring, the crowd was there, it was just all a little bit different. But then, as soon as I found my feet, I was fine.”

Clarke did better than fine, of course. He returned in spectacular style and was happy to be back – and relieved, too.

“I’m a very chilled-out character, if people know me,” he explained. 

“I don’t really get too bothered about what others say, to a huge extent. But there’s been that much going on in that fight week, that every interview was, ‘Are you safe to be boxing still?’ ‘Should you have not boxed on?’ And that frustrates me because we’ve seen time and time again, fighters get knocked out or stopped and come back and do amazing. So it was quite frustrating.”

Clarke had weighed in at 276lbs for Tetteh and said he would like to be a little lighter as he progresses, in most part so he has less bulk to move around in longer fights.

But Clarke felt good and is hoping for activity now.

Boxxer has a show in Barnsley, England, in June, and Clarke has been linked to a fight against the winner of the yet-to-be-scheduled British title rematch between Jeamie “TKV” Tshikeva and David Adeleye, which should be on tap for the summer. Already, Clarke – who ran the day after the fight and ticked over to the gym Tuesday – has declared to those who matter that he will be ready to go sooner rather than later.

In his amateur days, he would fight 20 times a year.

“Now, it’s really slowed down,” Clarke said. “I want to be active. The natural thing seems to be the winner of TKV and David Adeleye. But if I could get one in between that, I think that would be great for myself. If not, I have no problem jumping straight into that fight. And then, the last 24 hours, there’s a line, and people are talking about Joe Joyce – which is something I’d love to revisit one day. And Dillian Whyte, as well.”

Joyce bettered Clarke several times in the amateurs, and in a business sense, it is understandable that they would run it back in the pros. But that is not a fight Clarke will be going out of his way to make.

Joyce has lost four of his past five, and the form he showed against the likes of Daniel Dubois and Joseph Parker in his best wins has evaporated.

“He probably won’t like me saying this, as much as I’d love that fight, just because of the history we’ve got – and I know he’s come out last week and said he’s absolutely fine – I'm not sure where it sits with me on fighting him again,” said Clarke. “I don’t like to tell people they shouldn’t fight again, but I know Joe, I like Joe. It’s a strange one for me, because I’m just not sure on the feeling of it yet. I mean, if it gets made, and we’re getting paid for it, then maybe we have to do it.

“But at the minute, I’m just not sure, just because the human inside of me. People are going to say, ‘That’s strange, you’re a boxer, you’re supposed to be aggressive, you’re supposed to be a violent dog.’ No, from the humanity side of things, I like this guy. He’s almost like a friend from a distance, do you know what I mean? So I’m not sure how that sits with me about fighting him; it’s a weird one. If it has to happen, then it has to happen.”

Then there’s Whyte, another fighter Clarke could use to springboard his brand.

“These are names that they probably feel like they’re all bigger fights than Frazer Clarke at the minute. But I think we’re in this stage with boxing now that if the British public demand it and call for it, then we can make it happen.”

After icing Tetteh on Sunday in Birmingham, the 33-year-old Clarke is eager to carry on. Now 9-1-1 (7 KOs), he has immediate goals with a focus on the British title. But the bigger picture for the 2020 bronze medalist extends beyond the Lonsdale Belt.

“It’s for other people to decide, but when you actually look at mine and Fabio’s first fight, that was for the British title, and then forgetting about the second one happened, I believe [the first one, a Fight of the Year contender that ended in a draw] was above British level anyway. So I know it’s the British title on the line, but I believe that quality of fighting, and what we both showed in there was probably above European title level anyway. But I want to be involved in big fights, and I definitely think that’s where I perform my best.”

Tris Dixon covered his first amateur boxing fight in 1996. The former editor of Boxing News, he has written for a number of international publications and newspapers, including GQ and Men’s Health, and is a board member for the Ringside Charitable Trust and the Ring of Brotherhood. He has been a broadcaster for TNT Sports and hosts the popular “Boxing Life Stories” podcast. Dixon is a British Boxing Hall of Famer, an International Boxing Hall of Fame elector, is on The Ring ratings panel and is the author of five boxing books, including “Damage: The Untold Story of Brain Trauma in Boxing” (shortlisted for the William Hill Sportsbook of the Year), “Warrior: A Champion’s Search for His Identity” (shortlisted for the Sunday Times International Sportsbook of the Year) and “The Road to Nowhere: A Journey Through Boxing’s Wastelands.” You can reach him @trisdixon on X and Instagram.