“He’s the nicest kid ever,” said coach Stephen Smith. “Comes to the gym and goes home, doesn’t drink, lives the life, you’re not gonna get anything mad about him.”
This is never a bad message to get from a trainer about one of their up-and-comers, and that is what the Liverpool trainer told me about his charge, Ste Clarke.
“Pretty bang on, to be fair,” Clarke smiled at the character reference.
Then, the 10-0 (2 KOs) middleweight explained how he and Smith linked up.
“I boxed for the Rotunda as an amateur, obviously, Swifty [Smith’s ringside nickname] boxed for the Rotunda as an amateur as well, so I’ve known him since I started the Rotunda, because they always used to come in, him and [brothers] Paul, Liam and Callum as well, just come in, support the up-and-coming lads and girls. And when I wanted to turn pro, when I won the ABAs, I spoke to Paul, asked him whether he’d be my manager at the time, because I knew he was managing, he said, ‘Yeah, not a problem,’ and then Swifty wasn’t actually coaching at the time, but he was thinking of it, so Paul said, ‘Would you want to go with Stephen,’ and I said ‘Of course. Not a problem, 100 per cent,’ and that’s pretty much how he got to coaching me.”
Smith was a world title contender and one of the better UK boxers not to get over the line and win a world belt.
He had a very good career, and he has a burgeoning reputation as one of the UK’s fastest-rising quality coaches.
Clarke is impressed by Smith’s boxing brain and how hard-working he is. Clarke also likes how hard he pushes everyone in the gym.
“He’s probably one of the best coaches in the game at the moment,” Clarke added. “He’s been there, done it, the family’s been there, done it. He’s got the experience, so he’s not just someone coming off the street saying, ‘I’m a boxing coach.’ He’s actually been there and done it. He knows what it’s like to be a fighter and how to actually teach boxing, rather than someone just coming off the street being a PT and a padman.”
Clarke doesn’t need a motivator as he is fine doing that himself. As Smith said, there’s nothing wrong with Ste’s work ethic.
There is also nothing wrong with his manners.
“I’m brought up from a good family,” Clarke says. “My dad [Stephen], he’s had me in the gym since I was young. He’s always been into the gym himself and he’s always been hard-working and dedicated to his training, so I think I’ve got that from him. Since six, seven years of age I’ve been training, he’s been training me hard and getting me in the right gyms, getting me with the right people and showing me what to do, just from being young.”
Ste’s father, who worked on the doors of the city’s pubs and clubs, didn’t box but was always around the boxing and MMA gyms in Liverpool. Ste, however, wound up going to university to study Business and Management.
He knows that will help him in life after boxing, and it will also help him navigate boxing’s often rocky political waters.
“Obviously, with boxing, it’s a business at the end of the day, isn’t it?” Clarke said. “So, the stuff I learned in university is going to help me as my career gets bigger and my name gets bigger to help me guide myself.”
Clarke is engaged to his childhood sweetheart, Kirsty, and they’ve been together almost 10 years. They work out together and occasionally take part in fitness competitions as a duo, but when it comes to boxing, he is listening to Paul and Stephen Smith and the advice they give him as he looks to improve.
“I want to become a better fighter in every single attribute. So, I think each fight I am improving and I think as the levels step up, I will improve myself because the better the fighter is, it’s only going to bring the better fighter out of me. Each fight’s just to progress any way, shape or form.”