Frazer Clarke, the Olympic super-heavyweight bronze medallist, was given the simplest of tasks on his professional debut as he stopped overmatched Jake Darnell in 126 seconds on the Khan-Brook undercard in Manchester. 

Darnell, who was making his professional debut having had one bareknuckle and several white collar fights, had been at the public workout on Wednesday as a fan, only to receive a call the following day to step in after the original opponent went down with COVID. 

He was terrible out of his depth and not even good enough to frustrate the Olympian or hold. Clarke warmed to the task bloodying Darnell’s nose and when he opened up with Darnell on the ropes, the towel came flying in from Darnell’s corner, leading referee John Lathan to wave it off. 

There were wins for the Azim brothers, Adam and Hassan. Super-lightweight Adam knocked out Jordan Ellison in the third round, while Hassan claimed a four-round points win over MJ Hall. 

Adam hurt Ellison early with a right to the body and it was the same punch that dropped Ellison to his knees in pain late in the first round. He gallantly carried on but was only really providing Azim with moving target practice.  

Midway through the third round, Azim landed his finisher, a big left hook that caught Ellison on the side of the jaw and sent him crashing to the canvas for referee Darren Sarginson to wave it off at 2:09 of the third round. 

Hall frustrated Hassan throughout and the only time he was down was from a low punch. Referee Sarginson scored it 40-36. 

Ron Lewis is a senior writer for BoxingScene. He was Boxing Correspondent for The Times, where he worked from 2001-2019 - covering four Olympic Games and numerous world title fights across the globe. He has written about boxing for a wide variety of publications worldwide since the 1980s.