Boxing's Frazer Clarke is the subject of Mirror Sport’s Black History Month mini-series. After a long hard-fought journey, the 31-year-old turned pro earlier this year and has gone on to win his first three fights. While he prepares for his upcoming bout with Kamil Sokołowski in Manchester next month, the 2020 Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist - who is of Jamaican heritage - stated his culture and local community first come to mind when he thinks of Black History Month.
“It makes me think of my local community," he told The Mirror in an exclusive chat. "I come from Jamaican heritage and it’s one of the only times where we get to celebrate the place that a lot of us are came from or have origin from. It’s a time to appreciate what we’ve got and how far we’ve come as a people and as a community.
“I feel full of pride in this month and especially being asked by my local people to attend certain events and show my awards and the things I’ve done. It fills me with great pride to be recognised by the community as someone that goes on and inspires others. It’s a great month and it’s a knowledgeable month, every time this month comes around I learn something new."
He added: “There are a lot of naive people in this world and this month for me it opens a lot of people's eyes for the good and it shows people's different backgrounds and that can only be positive in my eyes.” Very proud of his Jamaican heritage, a young Clarke was captivated and inspired by former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis, whose parents hail from the same Caribbean island.
As he grew older and progressed further into his boxing career, Anthony Joshua had a great influence on ‘Big Fraze’, who he has since became friends with and the pair have engaged in many sparring sessions together. “Growing up Lennox Lewis was massive for me, the way he represented Britain, but also Jamaica, he did it really well, he was a massive influence on me," Clarke shared.
“Anthony more recently, he’s a great friend and someone who I can look up to. In other sports I looked at Kelly Holmes, Mo Farah and when I was growing up, these people were doing amazing things. They inspired myself and a lot of other athletes to go on and believe in yourself, no matter where you are or where you come from, you can go on and achieve great things.”
Clarke’s story is definitely an inspiring one, as he recovered from just narrowly missing out on the 2012 and 2016 Olympic boxing teams to make the cut for Tokyo 2020. The heavyweight made the most of his opportunity as he claimed a bronze medal for team GB last summer, which he described as a “dream come true.”
“If I retired tomorrow, and looked at my CV, there’s not a lot of people in boxing that are going to go on and do what I‘ve already done," he said. "It was great at the time, representing your country and there’s not many people that get to experience it on the level that I did.
“It was a huge honour, one of the proudest things I’ve done in my life and I’ll never stop talking about it because it’s only as time goes on, and you move away from the squad and the Olympic games and a new dream you realise how big it was. For me the greatest honour in any sport is to represent your country at the Olympics and I’m proud to say that I’ve done it.”
Clarke’s journey is one many can learn from and be inspired by and he is keen to use his platform to help the next generation. He shared: “Sportspeople, people of power in positions with platforms, myself included, have a responsibility to navigate and guide the younger generation to do the right thing and to do better things.”
Clarke, who covered the first all-women boxing event on Sky Sports this last weekend, will put his undefeated boxing record on the line against Sokołowski in November. The Pole boasts a disappointing record of 11 wins, 26 losses and three draws, with only 10% of his victories coming by knockout. Clarke has swiftly knocked out all of his opponents so far and will be fancied as the favourite against Sokołowski.
But he is not taking him lightly and revealed his preparation ahead of the fight is going well. Sharing some more insight into his training, Clarke explained: “Preparation for a fight and preparation for pressure boxing it’s not easy. You have up days, you have down days, it’s about managing them and still getting the work done even when it’s not going your way.
“I’ve been gritting my teeth and getting through any obstacles come in front of me. I’m looking forward to the fight, I'm looking forward to the occasion. I’m working hard day in and day out and living the right life to try and get to where I need to be to perform in that fight.”
Read more of our stories about Black history at www.blackhistoryisourhistory.com
Sign our petition in a bid to make the history of Black Britons a mandatory part of the National Curriculum here.
