THE DONCASTER DE LA HOYA OUT TO UPSET THE HEAVYWEIGHT APPLECART
After arguably one of the greatest fights in heavyweight boxing history last weekend, the big boys take centre stage once again this weekend as Doncaster’s favourite son Dave Allen welcomes the Croatian monster Filip Hrgovic to his hometown.
A fight that quite literally came out of nowhere, we’ll be taking a look at the contest in depth and looking at where the fight can be won and lost by both fighters.
After learning his trade at the iconic Ingle Gym in Sheffield, Dave Allen’s career has been that much of a rollercoaster that even Alton Towers would probably deem the risk factor too high.
Unbeaten in his first 10 fights in the paid ranks, he then suffered back-to-back defeats to hard-hitters Dillian Whyte and Luis Ortiz.
Since those two defeats, he’s not put together a winning streak of more than four victories but despite that, he has picked up some big wins against the likes of Nick Webb, Lucas Browne and, most recently, Johnny Fisher.
He’s had his fair share of trainers, has the White Rhino, but since teaming up with Jamie Moore and Nigel Travis in Salford, he’s arguably looked the best he’s ever been.
For the first time in his career, he actually looks like he is enjoying the sport.
His two performances against Johnny Fisher were a great example of the good old cliché that “a happy fighter is a dangerous fighter.”
He may have lost the first fight by a narrow margin, but to come back and stop Fisher in the fashion that he did in the second fight said it all.
His loss to Arslanbek Makhmudov in October was a bit of a step backwards but the fact that he bounced back from that with a first-round KO of Karrim Berredjem showed that he’s still got that fire in his belly.
On Saturday night, however, he faces the toughest test of his career in the Croatian giant Filip Hrgovic.
After picking up bronze at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, much was expected of Hrgovic in the pro ranks and, as of yet, he’s probably not fulfilled his potential.
He picked up hard-fought victories over the likes of Zhilei Zhang and Demsey McKean before suffering the first defeat of his career to the recently crowned WBO World champion Daniel Dubois.
As all good fighters do, he bounced back with, again, hard-fought wins over Joe Joyce and then David Adeleye.
This is a man who is undoubtedly one of the most naturally talented fighters in the heavyweight division but he doesn’t half enjoy making things hard for himself.
Big, powerful, quick and experienced, he’s got all the traits to kick on and become a world champion at some stage of his career but, if he is going to do that, he needs to get past Dave Allen this Saturday night.
On paper, the fight is a bit of a mismatch.
A talented Olympic bronze medallist whose only defeat in the pros has come at the hands of a two-time world champion up against a fighter who’s shown that he is too good for domestic level but every time he has stepped up to world level, he’s fallen short.
However, as we saw last weekend with David Morrell Jr and Zak Chelli, boxing can be a funny old game.
The blueprint for Hrgovic to beat Allen is fairly straightforward. Box, don’t get dragged into a dogfight, work the body as much as you can and, whatever you do, don’t throw shots with your chin dangling next to Pluto because you’ll be in serious danger of getting caught by one of those monstrous looping hooks of Allen’s.
For Allen, it’s a much tougher ask.
In terms of experience as a professional, he’s got that advantage. Hrgovic is going to expect Allen to start fast and try to break him down to the body because, as we have seen on countless occasions, the big Croat has got one heck of a chin on him.
Allen might actually need to do the unthinkable and try to box with Hrgovic. Hrgovic has got a seven-inch reach advantage over Allen so, if he is going to try and box, he needs to use his lateral movement and his feet.
If he can box and find his way inside, that’s when he can get to work doing what Dave Allen does best. Mixing his hooks up to body and head, making the fight really dirty, slowing him down, taking away his footwork and basically making this as uncomfortable as possible for Hrgovic.
As we saw in the Adeleye and Dubois fights, Hrgovic can go through stages in fights where he switches off. If this happens again here, Allen needs to make the most of every second of it.
Adeleye nearly found a way to get him out of there so there’s no reason why Allen can’t.
It’s a tough fight, more so for Allen than it is for Hrgovic, however, if Allen boxes to instruction, has success and starts getting to Hrgovic early, he could well pull off one of the biggest upsets in the heavyweight division in recent years.
To the undercard now and there are some belting scraps on there too. Louie O’Doherty and Ahmed Hatim put their undefeated records on the line for the British & Commonwealth Lightweight Titles whilst Mikey Gomez and Lee McGregor look to continue their comebacks after suffering defeats in what promises to be an explosive lightweight contest.
Super-welterweight contender Carl Fail faces arguably the toughest test of his career against Scotland’s Dean Sutherland along with Maxi Hughes and Lewis Sylvester putting it all on the line in a cracking Yorkshire derby.
If that wasn’t enough, prospects Leighton Birchall, Joe Hayden, Bradley Casey and Ted Jackson all aim to extend their unbeaten starts in the paid ranks.
Another brilliant night of boxing in what could well turn out to be the most significant night in a certain Doncaster De La Hoya’s long and eventful career.