The 33-year-old heavyweight suffered a fractured cheekbone when he was knocked out in their rematch in October, and he admitted seeing him defeated for the first time was “devastating” for his loved ones and they feel a lot more “anxiety” about his career now.

He told Boxing News magazine: “The impact the second fight had on my family was devastating.

2There’s no beating around the bush, there’s no trying to tart it up – it hurt them.

“For them up to that point, it was just a case of we’ll go to a different city every 12 weeks, have a day out then we’ll watch Frazer fight, we’ll have a nice meal the next day, a celebratory victory and we’ll go home.

“Are they going to feel a lot of anxiety coming to watch me in Birmingham? Absolutely. Do they feel anxiety coming to the gym now? Yes, they do. Has it scared them a bit? Absolutely.”

But the “stubborn” fighter has no plans to change paths though he knows there’s always a possibility of “something bad” happening to him in the ring.

He said: “Unfortunately for them, I’m a fighter, I’m stubborn, I’ve been doing this my whole life and it isn’t going to change anytime soon.

“My only promise to them is that I’m going to work hard to ensure that doesn’t happen again. That’s all I can do.

“[My family] want to enjoy it and I always want them to enjoy it. But yeah, that’s my reality. My reality is that something bad can happen on any given moment.”