By Ian S Palmer
Unbeaten Frazer Clarke of Burton-on-Trent, who won a bronze medal for England as a super heavyweight at the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo, will be taking on fellow countryman Dave Allen of Doncaster this Saturday, September 2nd on the undercard of the Chris Eubank Jr vs Liam Smith rematch. The fight from Manchester can be seen live on Sky Sports Box Office in the UK and Ireland and on ESPN+ in America. Clarke last saw action in June when he beat veteran Mariusz Wach on points while Allen stopped Michael Bassett in just 99 seconds in February.
The 32-year-old Clarke boasts a perfect mark of 7-0 with 5 Ko’s and has just 26 rounds of experience under his belt since making his pro debut in 2022 and 10 of those rounds came in his last fight. He’s stopped Jake Darnell in one round, Ariel Bracamonte in two, Pencho Tsvetkov in one, Kevin Espinodla in four and Bogdan Dinu in two while being taken the six-round distance by Kamil Sokolowski and 10 rounds by Wach. Clarke’s first five opponents entered the ring with a combined record of 36-40 while Dinu was 20-4 so he’s taking another slight step up in class again against Allen.
Clarke stands 6-feet-6-inches tall with a 78-inch reach and has shown pretty good power as a pro, although against limited opposition, as his current knockout ratio stands at 71.4 per cent. Clarke won numerous medals as an amateur where he had wins over Lenier Pero, Sergey Kuzmin and Tony Yoka but was stopped by Joe Joyce a couple of times as well as being beaten on points by Joyce. He also lost decisions to Yoka, Joseph Parker, Otto Wallin and Anthony Joshua.
Allen is now 31 years old and climbs into the squared circle with a mark of 21-5-2 along with 18 Ko’s. He made his pro debut in 2012 following his amateur career and has boxed 115 rounds since then. He’s got decent size for a heavyweight at 6-feet-3-inches and a 75-inch reach, which means he gives up three inches in both height and reach to Clarke however. Allen’s biggest win came against former heavyweight belt holder Lucas Browne when he stopped him in the third round in April, 2019.
His five losses have been to David Price when he was stopped after 10 rounds in 2019; Tony Yoka by 10th-round stoppage in 2018; a 12-round split decision to Lenroy Thomas in 2017 for the vacant Commonwealth Heavyweight Crown; an eighth-round stoppage to Luis Ortiz in 2016; and a 10-round unanimous decision to Dillian Whyte five months earlier in a shot at the vacant WBC International Heavyweight Title.
His two draws were against Plamen Nikolov over four rounds in 2014 and a technical draw with Lenroy Thomas in 2018 for the Commonwealth Title. As we can see, Allen hasn’t had too much success when facing upper-class boxers such as Whyte and Ortiz and he hasn’t beaten anybody on the world level but Clarke hasn’t proven himself as of yet. Allen has a pair of pretty heavy hands as 85.7 per cent of his wins have come by way of stoppage and so have his last 13 wins. But on the other side of the coin, his chin isn’t the greatest as he’s been halted in three of his five defeats.
Prediction…
Allen has enough power to stop just about anybody and it will be interesting to see how Clarke handles that power as his chin hasn’t really been tested as of yet. Of course, Clarke has great power himself and Allen’s chin isn’t the greatest. This may be a case of who lands the biggest shot first. Clarke has the edge in size and skills but this isn’t going to be an easy fight for him. If Allen’s at his best he could give Clarke some trouble, but if he’s not in top form I’m expecting Clarke to stop him. Still, I wouldn’t count Allen out of this fight if he catches Clarke on the chin. Clarke has the edge but nothing will surprise me here.
