He may not have won his fight against Arslanbek Makhmudov, but once again Dave Allen won plenty of hearts over this past weekend.
The Doncaster boxer proved his toughness was beyond doubt across 12 hard rounds in Sheffield. He appeared to try and employ a rope-a-dope style tactic against the Montreal-based Russian, who stands over 6ft 5 inches and has now won 21 of his 23 fights, 19 of them by KO.
The first two minutes of most rounds saw Allen walking forward with a tight guard, soaking up a constant barrage of heavy shots, only to then try and unleash his own in the final minute when he had Makhmudov on the ropes.
He troubled him a few times, particularly in the ninth, when he emptied the tank and seemed just one more shot away from a real impact. However, Makhmudov rallied and boxed well to keep Allen at bay for the rest of the fight and the judges scored the bout 115-111, 116-110 & 117-109 in favour of Makhmudov.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, ‘The White Rhino’ admitted he may have only won three rounds.
“I was surprised, the speed caught me out. I didn’t think he’d punch so fast. Come the final bell I don’t know how many rounds I’d won, I thought I’d won three maybe. 9-3 would have been fine. Might have won the 9th, one in the middle, maybe the 12th, I don’t know, I’ve not watched it back. At the time I thought 9-3, fair enough I got beat 9-3. The honest truth is I just wasn”t good enough.”
Allen has said he will fight on, while Makhmudov is eager to get the Anthony Joshua fight he called for in the ring after beating Allen, as Joshua looks to return to action after more than a year out.
