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Late on Saturday night, in front of 10,000 howling fans in Sheffield, Dave Allen fell short in his bold attempt to move up the heavyweight rankings.
It was a brutal reminder of the levels in a business that far too many people believe is easy to conquer. Allen had the motivation, the desire and the fans, but after 12 rounds, Arslanbek Makhmudov had his arm raised in victory.
Allen has changed his life during the last year, shown determination and ambition in the gym and in fights, but the jump to the very fringes of the heavyweight division’s top, top tier was just a bit too far.
“I’m just not good enough,” Allen said. It felt like an apology to a devoted crowd, and there was no need for one. Allen’s rise has been a fine story, a boxing tale of redemption and hope, and the fans flocked to watch the man known as the “Doncaster De La Hoya”.
It was a brutally attritional fight from the early rounds, and there were moments when a fairytale ending looked likely; Allen never stopped swinging and finished the 12th and last round with a series of looping punches that just missed the chin of an exhausted Makhmudov. It was probably the only way the fight could have ended.
The scores were heavily in favour of Makhmudov, making him a winner by four, six and eight rounds. However, Allen made every single round competitive.
The simple story of the fight is that Allen was hit too often and too hard by Makhmudov’s big, booming right hand. He took punches that nobody has withstood in the past. Makhmudov’s statistics are impressive; he had stopped or knocked out 19 of the 20 men he had beaten and finished 13 of them in the opening round. He never dropped Allen, but he did hurt him. Allen admitted that much after the fight.
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At the end of the ninth round, Allen seriously caught and hurt Makhmudov, and with just about 10 seconds left, it looked like he could finish the fight. Makhmudov was stumbling, dazed and confused, but the bell sounded, and he had made a full recovery by round 11.
Allen had missed his chance; it showed another side to Makhmudov, it showed he could stay upright when hurt late in a fight. Too many heavyweights discover too late that they are vulnerable after eight or nine rounds.
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In the fight’s aftermath, Allen wondered if the fans would come out to see him fight again – and they would, make no mistake. Allen will first have to look long and hard at the performance and determine what he wants to do. He is 33 now and has been a professional since 2012. It was his eighth defeat in 34 fights. And, importantly, he reached a level.
There had been bold talk of a fight with Deontay Wilder, the former heavyweight champion, before meeting Makhmudov. Allen against Wilder would have been a big attraction, a fight that a year or two ago would have been a pure fantasy.
Allen does have other options at domestic level; he has also started to look after fighters, and that could be developed to allow him to stay active and in the business. Big Dave has some difficult decisions to make. “I’m not finished,” he warned.
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It was also in many ways the most important fight so far in Makhmudov’s career. The towering Russian had once been feared in the heavyweight division until he was gently and then painfully beaten and stopped by Agit Kabayel in 2023. It was a shocking end, and then there was another loss last year.
It looked like Makhmudov’s rise was finished. He needed the Allen win, and it also showed that he could go the full 12 rounds and win a gruelling fight; that is a priceless lesson in the heavyweight business.
At the end, instead of Allen calling out Wilder, it was Makhmudov calling out Anthony Joshua, which is a fight that could so easily be made and sold. There is a rumour that Joshua might just return to the ring in late December. It would end a long exile and serve as an ideal warm-up fight for something big next year.
A fight between Joshua and Tyson Fury is once again being spoken about in boxing’s secret and not-so-secret corridors. Both boxers would need a warm-up fight; Joshua has not fought since losing to Daniel Dubois in September 2024, and Fury has not fought since his second loss to Oleksandr Usyk in December of last year.
It was not Allen’s night, but it still felt magical at times as 10,000 people serenaded the unlikeliest of boxing heroes – and one of the nicest of men in the business.
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