The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

ARTHUR Clarke, self proclaimed as "the greatest" Bahamian boxer, was considered a "no-nonsense", pompous, arrogant and confident person, whom you "loved and accepted" for who he was.

Clarke, 60, was funeralised on Saturday at The Voice of Deliverance Church where Pastor Eldin Scott, filling in for host Pastor Rev Dr Leon Wallace, delivered a sterling sermon on the topic: "I get your back." He was assisted by Prophet Arthur Duncombe, a former boxer and basketball player who noted that Clarke always reminded him that he was the "greatest" Arthur.

During the service, tributes were also offered by former pro boxers Pat 'the Centreville Assassin' Strachan and Ray Minus Jr and long time friend Abby Major as well as the Rev James Farrington, who represented Minister of Health, Dr Duane Sands, the Member of Parliament for the Elizabeth Estates constituency.

Following the service, Clarke was interred in Woodlawn Gardens.

Major, representing the Cordeaux Avenue Group that congregated under the tree next to Hanna's Plumbing where they played checkers and dominoes and shooting the "breeze," said there was simply no way that anyone could win an argument with Clarke, so it was always in one's best interest to give "that round" to the talkative Clarke.

"Nobody could win an argument with Arthur," said Major, who spent considerable time socialising with Clarke. "Anytime we had anything under the tree from the 1980s until now, whenever an argument started and they asked me how it go, I say 'man, ask Arthur.'

"He used to say that he been to England, but he didn't go back because the Queen didn't come to see him when he was there. He went to Europe a number of times because of what he did, he said somebody was talking about him right now as we speak.

"That was the great Arthur Clarke. My brother used to say there's three great, Great Britain, the great Arthur Clarke and great times."

Major became emotional as he started to cry as he ended up saying "I love you Arthur."

It was Minus Jr who lamented that had it not been for Clarke's utterance that he would never win a title and he will get "whipped," he would not have become the British Commonwealth bantamweight champion when he won a TKO over Australia's Paul Ferreri on September 29, 1998.

"Paul was one of the greatest Commonwealth champions and I knew that I would have a tough fight," said Minus Jr, who attended the funeral with his father, Minus Sr. "Arthur Clarke would show up at the gym during my training and tell me that I was going to get whipped.

"I think he was able to motivate me to be the champion because every time he said that to me, I would go out there and train harder. There were times when I showed up at the gym and he was there before me. I had to ask him why he don't go home. He said he just wanted to let me know that I was going to get beat."

After pulling off the victory, which ultimately led to the retirement of Ferreri, Minus Jr said guess who was in the ring helping to lift him up? He said it was Clarke. But he said he didn't mind because Clarke helped to encourage him to become the champion and he appreciated him for that.

Strachan, still grieving over the death of his wife on July 3, said they both spent a lot of time as boxing buddies. In fact, he said while he was trying to cope with his wife's death and making final arrangements, he took Clarke around with him to help console him. So when he got the news on Independence Day that he died, he was in shock.

Just before he died, Strachan said Clarke had complained to him that Friday about being ill after what he thought was food poisoning and he advised him to go to the clinic for a shot, but Clarke told him, "I'm the great Arthur Clarke. I don't need no doctor."

As a friend for about 50 years, Strachan described Clarke as the "greatest junior welterweight boxer" in the country, who represented the Bahamas proudly around the world in Panama, United States of America, Europe and South Africa where he fought a number of prominent international boxers.

"He was arrogant, he was confident and he bragged about what he had done and where he had been," Strachan said. "But above all, he was a nice, decent human being, a God-fearing human being. Arthur had an opinion and he stuck to his opinion. Whatever you may think of Arthur Clarke, one thing is certain, he stood for something."

Rev Farrington, in recalling Clarke, whom he got to watch fight a number of times during boxing heydays at the Nassau Stadium and the Poinciana Arena, said many times he would see him walking the street and he never asked anyone for a ride, but if you stopped and offered him one, he would take it.

The theme for the homegoing ceremony was not so much about Clarke, but how those in the audience were reminded by Athama Bowe, who was introduced to boxing when he watched Minus Sr and the late world champion Everette Oswald 'Elisha Obed' Ferguson fight, that they should live with each other.

And instead of complaining about what was not done or done for our sporting legends when they died, Bowe said more concentration should be placed on loving Bahamian people again. He said once the Bahamas can get back to supporting each other, we will have a much better society to live in and it wouldn't be so hard when people die.