The 25-year-old middleweight from Liverpool signed a managerial contract with Paul Smith and decided to be trained by Stephen "Swifty" Smith.

Clarke (10-0, 3 KOs) will box Harvey Collison on November 7 as part of the Joshua Buatsi-Willy Hutchinson II undercard at Manchester's AO Arena. The Queensberry show will be streamed live on DAZN worldwide.

The Smith brothers have accumulated an incredible amount of experience. All four siblings were national amateur champions, won professional British titles and have competed at world title level.

Former WBO junior middleweight titleholder Liam continues to be linked with high-profile fights. Meanwhile former 168-pound champion Callum is just weeks away from challenging Dmitry Bivol for the Ring and unified light heavyweight crowns.

Stephen and Paul have eased into life outside the ropes. They have been around long enough to remember an era when a young fighter would serve a long apprenticeship away from the spotlight, hoping a brief highlight package of their latest win would feature on the weekly Ringside magazine show.

Times have changed.

These days, every round a prospect boxes is analyzed and ambitious management teams are constantly trying to find dangerous short-cuts to the top. Clarke has turned professional at a time when a strong, knowledgeable team is absolutely invaluable and he couldn’t be in better hands.

“The four of them, they've got as much experience in the boxing game that anyone's got,” Clarke told The Ring.

“I remember ‘Swifty’ actually said to me a year or two ago, 'There's no rush. We’ll take it fight by fight and get as much experience as possible. Then when we go for those title fights, we'll be winning them. You’ll be confident to win them because you've got all that experience behind you.'”

“There's loads of young prospects getting rushed too soon and don't need to be. You’ve got a big, long career — hopefully — ahead so, there's no need to rush. Take your time and when the time's right, go for those opportunities and win them.”

If Clarke has been kept on a tight leash so far, he is starting to strain at it. The fight with Collison will be his third consecutive eight-round fight and he has grown accustomed to boxing on major undercards.

Clarke is part of a talented crop of middleweight prospects all developing and maturing at a similar rate. At some point over the next twelve months, they will inevitably move into each other’s orbits.

When that moment arrives, Clarke will be more than ready.

“It's exciting. There are some big fights which can be made in the future,” he said.

“The middleweight division is always busy so there's always big fights there. When you’re a kid, that's what you want. You want to turn pro and be in these big fights. You see some of these arenas getting sold out, the atmosphere in there and that's what you want to be a part of, so I’m looking forward to it.”