LONDON, England - If you go back far enough, Jeamie TKV’s path to his shot at the British heavyweight title live on BBC Two can be traced to a single plate of poisoned lunch in 1980s Democratic Republic of the Congo.

TKV, full name Jeamie Tshikeva, is currently one of the most prominent figures on the domestic heavyweight scene, and that profile is set to rise even further once his fight against Frazer Clarke is shown on terrestrial television in the BBC’s first foray into boxing for more than two decades.

But the life and times of Tshikeva and the rise to his current position would be more suited to the silver screen given his incredible family backstory, which is punctuated by murder, revenge and an unlikely redemption arc.

It kicked off half a century ago this year with the first dose of poison in the TKV tale. By 1975, TKV’s grandfather Andre-Bruno was a highly decorated general in the Congolese army. A full 15 years had passed since the country’s independence from Belgium and 10 since Mobutu Sese Seko, born Joseph-Desire Mobutu, had taken control following a bloodless coup.

Andre-Bruno Tshikeva was a friend of Mobutu but, in the eyes of the paranoid commander-in-chief, was growing perhaps too powerful. “They were good friends, man” Jeamie tells The Ring.

“But for some reason, Mobutu had in his head that my grandfather was going to kill him. I don’t know if he was going through something at the time, but he started killing the people around him. My granddad was one of them.”

The perceived wisdom is that, at that time in particular, Mobutu was hellbent on eliminating the people he deemed a threat to his position and therefore his power. Andre-Bruno was a victim of that campaign, dying by poisoning in 1975, and his teenage son Makasi knew the truth.

Like his dad, Makasi was an avid wrestler – known as Big Papa T – and had triumphed in DR Congo’s national sport. His heart, however, was dead set on revenge. So in a move befitting a kung-fu movie, Makasi Tshikeva joined the army in his 20s in order to get closer to Mobutu so he could exact it.

“He joined up as soon as he could,” TKV adds. “He started climbing the ranks quickly – just going higher and higher. Mobutu didn’t know who my dad was then.

“But eventually he found out who he was, how he was the son of my grandfather, and so he decided he needed to kill him the same way.”

Which brings us back to that plate of food in the late 80s. Jeamie TKV is one of seven siblings, but had Mobutu succeeded in the plot that day, none of them would exist. Luckily, the Tshikeva family had deep roots.

“So first, Mobutu tried to poison him,” TKV explains. “But, funnily enough, the chef, an older guy, was my grandad’s best friend.

“He gave my dad a heads up, he said, ‘Look, I’m going to give you a different plate’. The chef told him he had to act normal because if you act like you know what’s going on, the game is up and we are both gone. My dad took that plate, ate his food and survived. Mobutu thought that was weird.”

But it didn’t stop there. The next attempt came on a climbing rope used for training.

“My dad was told, 'Don’t climb up that one. They’ve loosened it for you,'” TKV says. “He was an instructor in the army at that time, so they knew he would be climbing it.

“He avoided that, too, but it just showed how serious the threat to his life was, and it was all getting worse and worse. That was when he decided to leave the country. They had had my eldest brother by then, so he did what was best for the family.

“My dad left first and came to the UK to check it out. They welcomed him with open arms, so my mum followed shortly after.”

With his military days behind him, Big Papa T decided it was time to make a full-time return to wrestling in his new manor of Tottenham, north London, where he and his family settled in 1991. Suddenly dropped into one of the most deprived areas in the whole of England, the former Congolese commando made an immediate impact on the community.

“All he knows is wrestling, so it made sense for him to start a wrestling club,” TKV says. “He was also doing professional wrestling at the time and the WWE, or WWF as it was then, tried to sign him.

“But all the time he carried on training us and the community. He still does that to this very day.”

Big Papa T has become a pillar of the community in Tottenham, a place where the people have always had to fight. Only a few years before his arrival in his new home, the infamous Broadwater Farm riot had taken place at the estate of the same name in the heart of the borough.

Then, in 2011, the fatal shooting of an unarmed Tottenham native Mark Duggan by police triggered a series of riots across the capital, which started just down the road from Tshikeva’s wrestling club. Young Jeamie and his siblings were never too far from the streets, but it was the sport that shaped them.

“It’s a hard place,” TKV says. “But it’s the place that made me who I am today.

“And I will never complain about my upbringing. I wouldn’t consider my dad strict, but he made sure that we were disciplined. He had a military and wrestling background, so he was strict in a sense in order for us to do sports.

“A lot of my friends are now in prison, some of them are dead, pulled in wrong ways. I did hang around with them, but I did not do what they did just because I had my dad there.

“Every time I might have done something like that, I had my dad. I’d say, ‘Yo, I’m going back home’. The fear and discipline my dad put in me. … He was scarier than anything out on the street.”

Like his old man, young Jeamie excelled at wrestling but, in a bid to earn a decent living, he decided to take up boxing at the age 18. After 72 amateur bouts, he decided to turn professional in 2022. Disaster struck in his sixth fight when stopped on a cut against 11-1 Brazilian Igor Adiel Macedo, but three wins on the spin earned him his first crack at the British title this past April.

The first five rounds of his fight with David Adeleye that night had been attritional, but the controversy started inside a minute of the sixth. Referee Ron Kearney moved TKV’s hand in a clinch and shouted "break" but Adeleye still landed a left hook that sent his opponent over.

TKV managed to climb back to his feet, but was dropped for a second time and eventually Kearney stopped the fight. The Board ordered an immediate rematch but when Adeleye turned it down in order to fight Filip Hrgovic, TKV was matched with Clarke for their vacant title. The pair meet for the Lonsdale belt on October 25 at Vaillant Live Arena, Derby.

“I’m 8-2 now but if people look at my record, they will see I’ve had it tough,” he says. “Obviously wins would be good, but those losses mould me into the fighter I am today fighting for the British title. I can never regret or dwell on anything too much.

“Look at what my dad and his dad and the whole family have been through to get here. I draw strength from that. I mean, after everything that has happened, I feel like I’m supposed to be here, man.”