\n<\/p>\n
Around 3,500 vocal fans filled the intimate arena, jeering TKV on his ring walk. ‘Big Fraze’, from nearby Burton-upon-Trent, received a rousing reception in return.<\/p>\n
Much to the fans’ delight, he asserted himself in the opening round, snapping a jab to the body before ripping in stinging uppercuts that clearly troubled TKV.<\/p>\n
But the Tottenham man – whose family boasts a fascinating history, with both his father and grandfather serving in the Zairean army – showed his fighting spirit and settled into the contest. <\/p>\n
The bout had originally been scheduled for October before a rib injury forced TKV out. The postponement reignited tensions, souring a once-respectful rivalry. <\/p>\n
Clarke’s corner repeatedly protested low blows from TKV, some drifting in on the blindside of the referee, who issued a warning in the third. Moments later, another borderline shot earned TKV the point deduction.<\/p>\n
Jabs were scarce; instead, the fight descended into clinches from Clarke and heavy leaning from TKV, with lunging, telegraphed punches punctuating the action.<\/p>\n
TKV found success with his left hook and Clarke with his uppercut, but both men soaked up the shots as if they were bouncing off stone.<\/p>\n
Just as the contest seemed to be petering out, TKV – his right eye badly swollen – detonated a left hook that left Clarke reeling in the 11th.<\/p>\n
Clarke stayed upright only by leaning into TKV, looking lost as the referee moved in for a closer look.<\/p>\n
His coach, Angel Fernandez, looked set on pulling him out, but Clarke insisted on continuing. <\/p>\n
He left the ring without giving a post-fight interview, still appearing shell-shocked.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Around 3,500 vocal fans filled the intimate arena, jeering TKV on his ring walk. ‘Big Fraze’, from nearby Burton-upon-Trent, received a rousing reception in return. Much to the fans’ delight, he asserted himself in the opening round, snapping a jab to the body before ripping in stinging uppercuts that clearly troubled TKV. But the Tottenham<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-boxing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}