ALLEN EARNS APPLAUSE
Englishman wins respect of French crowd with brave showing against quality Yoka
“AFTER the fight, the crowd will be cheering me. They can adopt me. I’ll be the new French superstar!” said Yorkshireman Dave Allen on French television before his heavyweight 10-rounder against Tony Yoka – the 2015 World and 2016 Olympic superheavy champion, who was fighting in front of his home fans at the Dôme de Paris – Palais des Sports.
Allen – whose physical condition had been mocked by some French TV pundits beforehand – strode to the ring, backed by the theme song of former professional wrestling star Shawn Michaels, entitled
Sexy Boy. Dressed in a psychedelicpatterned robe and wearing a red beret, Allen, 26, had the near-3,000-strong crowd both perplexed and intrigued.
Yoka, meanwhile, walked out to the tune of Look Alive by Blocboy JB featuring Drake, with the lyrics stating, “I got the rounds like Sugar Ray Robinson.”
By the end of the fight, Allen got the applause from the crowd that he said he would, by performing as an English version of Tony Galento, while Yoka got the victory, although he did not look quite like Sugar Ray Robinson in doing so.
Yoka found his rhythm from the first round, scoring repeatedly with neat jabs. Despite this, Allen never stopped coming forward, trying to find angles to score with one-two combinations, including hooks and uppercuts on the inside.
Rocked in the second by an uppercut followed by a right hook, Allen was then hurt in the fourth – a round in which he lost control of the distance – by a straight right, followed by another uppercut from the same hand.
From this point on, Yoka strangely neglected to work his opponent’s body, but was nonetheless in total control, connecting on one occasion with three consecutive jabs. The tough Allen continued to march forward bravely, never sitting on his stool during the intervals and always trying to land booming overhand rights.
Towards the end of the eighth, Yoka taunted Allen and threw heavy shots, while in the ninth, the visitor lost his gumshield after a mauling session.
Yoka rushed out of his corner at the start of the 10th and soon hurt Allen with four successive right uppercuts. Brimming with confidence, the giant Parisian struck his adversary with a solid right, to which Allen replied with a jab, although it was not strong enough to deter Yoka from launching two jabs of his own, followed by a pair of violent rights that forced referee Christophe Fernandez to stop the contest at 2-17 of the final round.
Allen, who was not throwing back but still defending himself, was very unhappy with the stoppage. “The ref should’ve just warned me [instead of stopping it straightaway],” the Conisbrough man complained. “Yoka’s sharp – an excellent fighter. He’s not in [former opponent and EX-WBC heavyweight title challenger] Luis Ortiz’s league, though.”
Despite nursing a slightly tender right hand, Yoka was very happy with his win. “The injury is nothing – I’m alright,” the unbeaten 26-year-old said. “Allen was just as tough as I expected him to be.”
Yoka’s promoter, Richard Schaefer, rated his fighter’s showing as an “eight out of 10”. The Ringstar Sports chief added: “Tony needed this kind of fight on his way to the top.”
Incidentally, Yoka will find out on July 4 whether or not he will be suspended after previously missing three drug tests.
Schaefer described the performance of undefeated Bagnolet super-welterweight Souleymane Cissokho, 26, on the undercard as “excellent”. The Senegalborn French Olympian, who won a welterweight bronze medal at the 2016 Games, dominated former IBF superwelter champ Carlos Molina – a tricky 35-year-old Chicago-based Mexican – over 10. Cissokho was a unanimous victor by scores of 100-90 and 100-91 twice. Bertrand Chagnoux officiated.
THE VERDICT Allen deserves credit for coming very close to taking Yoka the distance.