CROWD FAVOURITE
Dave Allen responds to concerns about his tness and future with Matt Christie
Popular slugger Dave Allen responds to concerns about his fitness and future
DAVE ALLEN likes to punch and be punched. He wants to earn some money and put a smile on the faces of his fans while doing so. The 26-year-old heavyweight claims it really is as simple as that. But those priorities, and the carefree attitude to getting hurt, are drawing some concern.
Please don’t fret, he pleads. He has plans to team up with esteemed coach, Adam Booth, get fit and win the British heavyweight title. But the longterm future for Allen, who has battled depression in the past, is not a priority. In one breath there’s financially security surrounded by family and friends. In another there’s a bleaker tomorrow.
“I live for today,” Allen tells Boxing News. “I’ve had times when I didn’t think I was going to see tomorrow. I’ve tried killing myself, I’ve done all sorts in my life. I’m just fortunate to still be here. I’m very strange, I always have been, throughout my life. I’m just grateful to still be here.
“I don’t think about 20 years from now. I think about the next 10 minutes. I don’t worry about the future.
“I don’t want anything from anyone, I don’t need it,” he continues, obviously frustrated to have to justify his life choices time and again. “I’m very happy on my own. I’d be very happy to go and live in a hole and be on my own for the rest of my life and not speak to anybody. I don’t want sympathy from anyone. I just want to do what I want to do.”
The Doncaster man is immediately likeable. His tenderness and desire to please others is obvious and, like many boxers, at odds with his eagerness to fight. As he describes his love for combat, how it makes him feel, it’s easy compare him to warriors of a bygone era who existed purely for the thrill of the fight. Allen would fit into the 1920s when fighters went from slugfest to slugfest without a care in the world. It was a time when boxers ended their lives destitute and damaged.
Allen insists the biggest difference between him and them is he’s not fighting every week. In fact, he’s barely sparring.
On November 9 the Yorkshireman engaged in torrid warfare with unknown Argentinian, Ariel Esteban Bracamonte, before halting him in the seventh. His astonishing courage should not be questioned or underestimated. It was the latest in a series of punishing encounters for Allen, who has long been promising to get fit. Perforated eardrums will keep him out of the ring until 2019. Even so, after his gruelling victory, Allen was on top of the world.
“I felt fantastic,” he promises. “I felt alive. I would have fought again the next day.
“Getting smashed in the face makes me happy and that’s my prerogative. I haven’t had many fights, I haven’t been boxing that long. I’m really fresh, I don’t spar
‘YOU TRY AND GET SMASHED IN THE FACE BY A MAD MAN AND NOT GET TIRED’
that much. I’ve taken a lot less punishment than most boxers in the country so people don’t need to worry. Those old boxers used to fight all the time. The only time I’ve been hit in the last four months is on Saturday night. People just like to be dramatic. I’m healthy.
“It’s really annoying. I’m a proper realist. I’m not delusional, I’m the most realistic man in the world. If I thought I was getting hurt or putting myself in danger I wouldn’t do it. If I thought my speech was going to go, then I’d worry, but it’s not, it’s fine.”
It’s fine today. But his love for boxing – for getting “smashed in the face” – could yet backfire.
“It’s difficult because I only get the call to fight two-and-a-half weeks before,” Allen reasons. “People say, ‘You’re not in shape.’ Well f**king hell. I’ve got a small window to train and I do train in that time. And if my opponent comes out like a mad man, I’m going to match him. But of course I’m going to get knackered. I’m an 18-and-a-half stone man, anyway. You try and get smashed in the face by an Argentinian mad man and not get out of breath. He was a lot better than advertised. I literally gave it everything I got. I’m really trying.”
And he really is trying. Trying to fight, trying to please, trying to do the right thing. You can hear the exasperation in his every word.
But Allen accepts some of the criticism. He knows he is not training enough. He knows that ruling the boxing world is probably beyond him. He’s just proud of his ability to entertain.
“I’m very fortunate that I can bring happiness to people. Even the criticism I will take on the chin and 99 per cent of the time I will say, ‘Yes, you’re correct’. I don’t have any ill-feeling towards anyone giving me criticism. The only time it affects me is when somebody says something personal, I don’t like that. But if you’re just talking about boxing? That’s fine. I know I’m not the greatest boxer in the world. I’m not a lot of things. But when someone who doesn’t know me gets personal? I know I’ve got a good heart and I’ll do anything for anyone so that annoys me.”
The heavyweight is being passed fit for every fight. Those who argue he shouldn’t be fighting are perhaps ignoring the overriding truth of this brutal game. Not many make it out with titles and cash in the bank, even fewer can claim to emerge undamaged. Allen is a grown man, after all. He makes his own decisions. For now, the sport is his salvation.
“If it wasn’t for boxing I probably wouldn’t be here,” he explains. “I never anticipated having anything in life. I didn’t really even envision getting past 30 years old, I’ve always been messed up. When I’m finished with boxing it might be the same, I will never deny that. But these are the best years of my life while I’m boxing. When Bracamonte was smashing my face I’ve never been happier in my life. I need it, I really do need it.
“Do you know what I want more than anything? I just want to make people happy. I want to come to the ring to stupid wrestling songs, hear the crowd cheering. I do it to make people happy and that’s the top and bottom of it. Nothing I do in this life is for me.”
Allen’s lack of self-worth is alarming at times. But it’s almost impossible not to root for him.
“I wouldn’t change a thing,” he says. “I have bought two houses out of boxing. Let me tell you, when I was a kid my mum was a cleaner working all hours. She supported us. My dad was catching rabbits so we could eat. So, for me to have two houses now and do what I want to do, I feel like I’m heavyweight champion of the world. I feel unbelievable.
“I’ve got enough money to be comfortable but when I finish boxing I’ve got nothing else to do. I’m making all my money now while I can.
“I’m not risking my health now, but I will risk it to see people that I care about are happy. Either support me or don’t. Don’t get in the way of me making a living.”