British heavyweight Frazer Clarke made a perfect start to his professional career this past weekend after securing a comfortable TKO victory.
Clarke, the 30-year-old British Olympian who won bronze at the delayed Tokyo 2020 games, made his debut against Jake Darnell - with the fellow debutant forced to retire in the first after an onslaught from Clarke.
Clarke is the latest in a long line of Olympians who have enjoyed success at the games, including the likes of Amir Khan and Anthony Joshua. Khan was defeated by long-term rival Kell Brook in Saturday's main event in Manchester.
Clarke has trained with Joshua for years and even been a bodyguard for AJ.
Clarke is expected to have a number of fights against what could be considered lower opponents before eventually testing himself in a few years time against the bigger names in the heavyweight division.
He revealed that he received a few words from Joshua before making his debut at the Manchester Arena.
He told Sky Sports: "Big Josh is always someone I've been around and he seems to be cool, calm and collected.
"I'm trying to be just that. He's not a bad person to look up to and to take experience from. He said to embrace it and enjoy it and I think I'm doing exactly that."
Clarke, 30 is considered old for a debutant but promoter Ben Shalom believes he can emulate fellow Brit Joe Joyce's quick rise through the heavyweight ranks.
"Joe Joyce is the easiest to compare," said Shalom. "He is an obvious comparison. Frazer will have to move as quickly as Joe, who is now 35 and is in world title contention.
"By the time Frazer is 35, we'd be very disappointed if he hasn't already had a world title fight. "He will have to move quickly in the next few years but also carefully."
