FRAZER CLARKE picked up Team GB’s second boxing bronze medal of Tokyo 2020 after a semi-final defeat to Uzbekistan’s Bakhodir Jalolov.

The super-heavyweight bout was stopped in the third round after a nasty cut above Clarke’s right eye opened up, leaving him unable to continue.

Clarke lost the first round unanimously but one judge awarded him the second round after a right hook wobbled Jalolov, before the referee intervened in the third.

Clarke joins women’s featherweight Karriss Artingstall in winning Olympic bronze, while Pat McCormack picked up men’s welterweight silver.

Other boxers have already guaranteed themselves medals, meaning Team GB will leave Tokyo with their biggest haul of boxing medals at one Games since 1908.

Clarke, 29, from Burton, said: “It’s not the fairy-tale that I wanted but I’m proud of myself, it’s a great effort.

“The last six months of my life, I’ve made more sacrifices than I have done over the past 18 years when it comes to boxing. To get in there with one of the best, it’s a pleasure and an honour for me. I’m proud of myself and the whole team.

“I’m an Olympic bronze medallist, I never saw that happening for me. Congratulations to Jalolov, he’s a great fighter – I gave my best and I’ll able to sleep at night. I’m healthy, my family is healthy, I made the Olympic Games – I couldn’t ask for anything more. I wanted the Olympic final but my picture is on the wall in Sheffield, I’ve done myself proud and my town proud.” 

Meanwhile, Ben Whittaker earned a silver medal but was out-foxed by the wily Cuban Arlen Lopez in the Olympic light-heavyweight final in the early hours of August 4.

The British boxer lost the first round 10-9 on all five judges’ scorecards, while one judge awarded him the second after an improved round. But that still left him with too much to do and Lopez eased through the third to win gold.

Whittaker, 24, from Darlaston, said: “No boxer wants to receive a silver medal, every boxer wants gold and I am one of those. 

“I woke up this morning truly believing this was my time. I had the whole of the West Midlands behind me and Great Britain. I feel like a failure, so I didn’t want to celebrate silver at that time and I don’t think I can just yet.

“When I look back in a few years, it will probably be a great achievement but right now I don’t feel like it.I feel like the right man won. He was a lot better than I thought, he is a two-time gold medallist for a reason.

“It shows what level he is at and I can remember watching him in 2014 or 2015. I never thought I would get the chance to fight him and I did and it was a pleasure but I am just so upset.

“It is very strange because idols turn to rivals. I would not say I was in awe of him but I respected him. And then I am in the right with him. It was a weird one but he is a fantastic boxer and hopefully one day I get to see him again.”