When he walks to the ring on Saturday to fight Cheavon Clarke, Viddal Riley will do so with the profound perspective gained while spending six months recovering from an injury suffered in victory.

It was in March 2024 when, in the first round of his fight with his fellow Briton Mikael Lawal, Riley – who has been matched with Clarke on the undercard of Chris Eubank Jnr-Conor Benn at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium – felt his rib break when being punched.

He fought on for 10 rounds and resisted the growing pain he was enduring to earn a wide unanimous decision that represented not only his finest victory but his first defense of the English cruiserweight title. He regardless lost all sense of momentum and remained inactive for nine months until returning to stop Dan Garber in two rounds in what represented a keep-busy fight in December, but the 34-year-old Clarke is a more proven and ambitious opponent – and perhaps the opponent capable of putting Riley’s increased maturity to the test. 

“You learn the value of time when things are taken away from you,” Riley told BoxingScene. “You don’t take things for granted. I would have done my 2024 way different to what it turned out to be – a lot more fights; a lot more opportunities to boost the brand as well; if fighting’s the main part of your brand and that’s absent then you’re going to have difficulties – so you realise the value of time and how quickly things move. 

“The division can change and belts change and people retire. A lot happens. ‘When you get back in, make the most of it, because it’s not guaranteed you’re [still] going to have the plan that you have.’

“I guess that’s part of youth. You just think, ‘I’ll do it again’, and then you go, ‘Oh shit – I’m going bald at 27’. You see family members – babies who are no longer babies. They grow up, and you think, ‘Shit – time moves’. ‘Now’s my time to do it.’ I’m going to fulfil my potential – the time is now for me to do that.

“Nothing happens before its time. When you learn to accept that and embrace that then things are a lot easier to deal with. But that time out has best prepped me for that Cheav fight – for what being at that level requires – and that’s what I’m excited about.

“It was a frustrating year. I’d had my career-best win against Mikael Lawal, and I couldn’t build momentum off it. It just faded away. That was frustrating, but through what I’ve experienced in that time, I value that I had that time. It just allows you to live life. Boxing is only a small piece of life; when you can’t get in the ring you see life. 

“Things happen around you. You lose people. You gain and meet new people. You go through so many experiences that carry with you when you go back to the ring, and that’s what this year was about for me – making me have that time to look at myself, and look at what’s around me, and then decide, ‘Are we flying forward or are we not?’. I’m like, ‘Yeah, 100 per cent – we have to’. I’m very excited – and then [after fighting Clarke] I just want to fly forward.” 

It was while he was recovering that Riley watched Richard Riakporhe challenge, and fail to dethrone, Chris Billam-Smith as the WBO champion and Britain’s leading cruiserweight, and Jack Massey defeat Isaac Chamberlain – who Riley had been targeting – and being rewarded with a fight with Australia’s Jai Opetaia, who ruthlessly stopped him.

Billam-Smith has since lost his title to Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez but remains widely considered Britain’s leading cruiserweight. Riakporhe has agreed to move up to heavyweight. Clarke lost for the first time, via split decision to France’s Leonardo Mosquea in a fight for the vacant European title on the night Riley returned against Garber. Opetaia-Ramirez has become the division’s most sought-after contest. Riley, having observed almost all of that and further activity from afar, perhaps had little choice but to increasingly recognise how replaceable he and his rivals are. 

The 27 year old – a fighter regardless reaching his physical peak in what represents one of the British fight scene’s most competitive weight divisions – was forced to be particularly still while he recovered, because of the nature of his injury. 

Unlike when an injured limb is protected by a cast, his recovering rib was tested by each of his movements, forcing on him even more time alone to ponder the progress lost in his career and to confront his potentially negative thoughts.

“You just have to endure it,” he explained. “You can’t lay on that side; rotation; opening the door; any bit of contact… Then there’s swelling around the area as well. It was very painful, man. For a solid six weeks I was totally, ‘Don’t touch me; don’t come near me’, and then after that I was starting to feel a bit of progress. 

“Went to the oxygen chamber; they said the oxygen supply is the only thing that can really help; it’s a bone, but more oxygen will help repair the bone quicker. You can feel the difference – that helped. But other than that just time, and being in the gym doing what I can do to make sure I’m better for my return. 

“At the time, when Mikael Lawal hit me, I knew it was a good body shot, but it didn’t hit me in the organs so I thought, ‘It’ll wear off after a couple of rounds’. It wouldn’t wear off – it got worse throughout the fight. Every time I sat down on the stool I got up off the stool. You’re just in it at that point. ‘I’m gonna just have to pick him off today, because this is getting worse.’ 

“Even the post-fight pictures you see me smiling – it’s more like a grimace. ‘I want to go backstage now.’ It was an experience. But all those things help you – they help mature you. That was the start of me having to mature into my next phase in order to tackle the next challenges.”