Fabio Wardley and Frazer Clarke are set to run it back on October 12 after fighting to a draw in March.
The fight was fitting for a British Heavyweight Title encounter, with champion Wardley and challenger Clarke leaving everything in the ring over twelve bloody rounds.
Clarke scored accurate success that led injured Wardley’s nose and sapped him of energy, but Wardley got the sole knockdown and was praised for his trademark aggressiveness.
The two Brits will now rematch on the undercard of Artur Beterbiev-Dmitry Bivol in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on October 12.
Speaking on Froch on Fighting, Carl Froch praised the first encounter and said he felt the challenger ‘nicked it.’ He also addressed the idea of the British Heavyweight Title being contested in Saudi Arabia – the second time after Wardley defeated David Adeleye last year.
“They had a fight back in March, a real humdinger. That was a British Title defence for Fabio Wardley, Frazer Clarke really did do himself proud. I thought on the night he nicked it. Everyone says scoring’s subjective but I thought on the night Frazer Clarke did the job. They’re running it back in Saudi – I don’t want to criticise for the sake of criticising but that first one was at the O2 in London. The atmosphere was electric … This one now is in Saudi Arabia and I do think a rematch in Britain for the the British Heavyweight Title, that’s where it should be.”
As for a prediction, ‘The Cobra’ is backing Clarke with no huge confidence.
“I can’t really pick a winner, but I’m leaning towards Frazer Clarke. The first one was really close, it was a great fight, fair play to both guys, I like them. Maybe [I’m leaning Clarke] because I spent a lot of time with him at the EIS in Sheffield where I finished off the later part of my career under Rob McCracken. This is gonna be a close fight. It’s gonna be down to who puts the hard work in before.”
