FABIO WARDLEY and Frazer Clarke’s first fight was so bloody good it made boxing draws sexy again.
In a sport in dire need of clarity on champions, rankings and judging, a shared round – let alone a whole fight – usually causes uproar among fans.
Fabio Wardley and Frazer Clarke drew a blockbuster bout at the O2 in March[/caption]
The thrilling showdown had fans desperate for more[/caption]
They will step back into the ring for their Saudi rematch[/caption]
The draw usually means the champion or hometown favourite has been saved by dubious officials, just ask Marvin Hagler, Pernell Whitaker, Nigel Benn, Lennox Lewis, Gennady Golovkin and Tyson Fury.
But on March 31 at the O2 when Ipswich’s 29-year-old Wardley went to war against 33-year-old Burton behemoth, even ringside rap star Kano was accepting of the decision.
The thrilling and gory late-night violence was worthy of a Top Boy episode.
And thankfully when the scorecards were read out – one judge favouring Wardley, one picking Clarke and one picking the draw – the feedback was far less vicious than the fight.
Fans scoring along on boxing’s online bible BoxRec even agreed and scored the fight a 113-113 tie.
And, unlike most close or controversial decisions these days, there was no talk of alternative avenues, no plan to side-step, zero schemes to navigate another route to a world title shot.
All roads lead to a rematch and the only detail that needed thrashing out was the time and date.
The time is Saturday and – sadly for the fans who wanted to attend the all-English clash for Wardley’s British title – the location is Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
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The reason is money, as it always is when something is uprooted from Europe and dumped into the desert.
But this is a prime example of why Saudi Arabia’s slugfest slush fund is a good thing for the most important people: the fighters.
Those boys bled and bruised their way through 12 painful rounds for our entertainment. They got paid well for it, by Sky Sports and Boxxer.
But they will massively boost their earnings by taking the rerun into the sand dunes.
And nobody can rewatch the first fight and complain that both brave men are not going where the most money is.
If this bout was taking place in Russia, Palestine, Israel or Northampton – as long as the two heroes risking their health and their lives were maximising their earning potential – it should not matter to the people lucky enough to be watching.
Slow-starter Wardley had his bullseye of a nose pinged from the very first bell by the 19st 2020 Olympic bronze winner until it eventually resembled a fleshy offcut out of a butcher’s bin.
The Suffolk Puncher – who started off his career in a recruitment office before a few white-collar fights gave him the boxing bug – launched himself into the contest in the second with big shots wobbling his foe.
But Clarke found his honey punch toward the end of the second, slashing uppercuts through Wardley’s guard and pelting his nose into haemorrhaging.
But in the fifth round, Wardley’s rasping right hand robbed Clarke of his lead and his senses and he hit the deck for the first time in his career and needed eight seconds to recover.
Wardley’s experienced and proven corner worked wonders cleaning up his nose between rounds and helping their man break Clarke down.
And the former security guard didn’t help himself when he got a point deducted in round seven for a hat-trick of low blows.
Clarke stopped dropping points in the back half of the fight but Wardley kept leaking blood out of the busted bridge of his nose – with ref Steve Gray calling the ringside doctor up to check it in round ten.
And that scar tissue will be a target again this weekend as Clarke tries to finish the job.
In the final two rounds, both men looked utterly spent, devoid of energy, ideas and an escape route.
But they dug deeper and deeper and thankfully heard the final bell and hit Saudi oil.
There’s always plenty of issues in boxing to moan about, ignore or switch off.
But this fight – on the undercard of the magnificent undisputed light-heavyweight decider between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol – is not one of them.
Pay your money, fill the sofa and watch two big brave English boys do the nation proud again.
Wardley’s nose poured with blood during their first fight[/caption]
The British duo will light up the undercard[/caption]
The Suffolk star retained his British, Commonwealth, WBA Continental and WBO European heavyweight titles[/caption]
