JEAMIE TKV is not willing to give up on his rivalry with David Adeleye so easily, even if he must now focus his attention on Frazer Clarke.
The 31-year-old was confronted with a nightmare end to their British title encounter in April, back when Adeleye, 14-2 (13 KOs), emerged with a controversial sixth-round stoppage victory.
To make matters worse, TKV, 8-2 (5 KOs), even seemed to be coasting through their contest with relative ease, before a swift left hook ultimately killed his momentum.
That shot, as it happened, was landed just moments after referee Roy Kearney called ‘break’, signalling that it was safe for both heavyweights to exit the clinch.
As a result, many expected Adeleye and TKV to enter an immediate rematch, only for the former to go 10 rounds with Filip Hrgovic instead.
But despite remaining irritated with the outcome, TKV believes that it is just a matter of time before his shot at revenge comes to fruition.
“[the nature of his defeat] did not faze me one bit, because I knew it was a cheap shot,” the Londoner tells Boxing News.
“I was ready to go back in there and fight him but, unfortunately, he wasn’t interested in doing the rematch.
“Queensberry [Promotions] had agreed, my team had agreed – we thought it was all set and done – but nothing was agreed on his [Adeleye’s] side. I feel like he did that deliberately.
“They then let it go to purse bids, and we accepted whatever the purse bid money was. We said, ‘It don’t matter about the money; we just want Adeleye and the British title.’
“[Adeleye] probably thought I was going to say, ‘Oh, forget it,’ because it went to purse bids. But I stayed on it, and he vacated the title to fight Hrgovic.
“I guess that was the opportunity that came, but he had stuff to deal with first and he didn’t deal with it.
“So I was disappointed that we couldn’t get the rematch done, but we’ll circle back to that fight. I’ve just got to win this British title, and then I’ll get Adeleye later on.”
TKV has, of course, been given a second stab at the Lonsdale Belt against Clarke, 9-1-1 (7 KOs), with the pair headlining a Boxxer card at the Vaillant Live, Derby, on October 25.
Following an appeal to the British Boxing Board of Control, though, the Tottenham man had hoped that he might have found himself in a more preferable position.
“I feel like more could’ve been done to get [the Adeleye loss] overturned [to a no-contest],” he says. “But look, we can’t complain too much.
“The Board did what they could, but said it is very difficult to overturn a decision because a lot of people would then step in and try to get other decisions overturned.
“Our response was that not every situation is like ours, but the Board still gave me a second opportunity [to win the British title], so I can’t complain.”
Indeed, a heavyweight is never too far away from a meaningful opportunity, and it just so happened that Clarke, in equal measure, was patiently waiting for his third British title dustup.
Frazer Clark and Jeamie TKV will headline the debut event in the landmark new partnership between BBC Sport and Boxxer, with all the action available to watch live and free-to-air on BBC Two 8-10pm and BBC iPlayer.
