Eddie Hearn has predicted victory for Frazer Clarke over his former fighter Fabio Wardley on Sunday evening.

The Matchroom promoter attempted to make a fight between the rival heavyweights in 2023, and on Sunday evening at London’s O2 Arena on a Boxxer promotion they contest Wardley’s British and Commonwealth titles.

That he had been keen to do so suggested he viewed Wardley, at 29 three years younger than Clarke, as the favourite, but Hearn told Boxing News: “I really like Fabio. We have done a lot of fights with him. I also really like Frazer. He has tons of experience against a lot of good heavyweights, but not tons over the [professional] distance. 

“But neither has Fabio, because his fights have always ended inside the distance. Still, I am leaning towards Frazer Clarke because of his experience against better heavyweights – but Fabio is a sharpshooter. 

“I expect Fabio to be very sharp early on, but it is really down to whether Frazer can close the distance and use his work rate. Yes, he [Clarke] can punch a bit as well, but it’s a pick’em fight.”

In his previous fight, in December in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Wardley stopped David Adeleye, and Adeleye expects his former opponent to win. 

“Styles make fights,” he told the same publication. “That is what I have said before. It depends on how the styles gel because that is how we end up with great fights, but Wardley should come out on top.”