'If he can't beat me at this point he might as well pack it in' - veteran Dave Allen calls it straight

Dave Allen and Thomas Carty. Pic: INPHO/Gary Carr

It's been decades since an Irishman who came to be known as Dave Allen prospered in England by calling life as he saw it. Now England is returning the favour in the form of a no-nonsense Yorkshireman of the same name who fights in Croke Park this weekend.

Allen is 34 now and well into the fag-end of a career as a boxer who was very good without ever being great, the last high point coming in front of 10,000 people in his hometown of Doncaster in May against Filip Hrgovic.

That was before his corner threw in the towel.

He faces Dublin’s Thomas Carty in a heavyweight bout on the Katie Taylor undercard on Saturday, but you wouldn’t know it because Allen is giving off the vibes of a man calling at your door to fix a pipe leak on a cold winter morning.

“I’ve been a pro 15 years now, this is fight 39. After the Hrgović fight, all the feeling left me really for boxing. The feeling has left. I’m not here trying to resurrect a run at any titles. I’m here to fight really, that’s it. There are no mad ambitions, no anything really.

“I’m just here to fight. And at this level I’m a proper handful. People will say whatever about my weight and about my effort levels. When I get in the ring at this level – if you are not Hrgovic or [Arslanbek] Makhmudov – I’ll take some beating.” Allen has been fighting since he was four when he got in a scrap in his local area. A scrapper is exactly how he sees himself, and there is a disarming honesty to the man as he talks of himself as an athlete past his peak who knows his ceiling.

Carl Frampton, on stage for DAZN at the undercard press conference on Thursday, put it to Allen that some of this had to be an act. No, he was insistent that, win or lose, he is sticking to his plan to retire after 40 fights. Croker and then one more.

The pressure, he said matter-of-factly, rests on the Irishman who is 11-1 as a pro and, though only four years younger, is still of a mind to go on to bigger and better things in his heavyweight career.

“If he can’t beat me at this point he might as well pack it in. I’m not what I used to be. I’ve had kids, I’ve simmered down, but I’m still strong, durable and can punch. If you are not pretty good I’ll get you, and I think I’ll get him.” 

Carty balanced respect for his more experienced opponent with an umbrage taken by Allen’s talk of this ‘level’ of fight, but the older man was unflappable. There was no fanfare or fury when he stated that he would “flatten” an opponent he described as a decent boxer.

“I’m not here to argue, I think you are a nice guy. I’m just here for Saturday. I look forward to it: the first four or five rounds and then the fight will start in round six. And it’s going to be horrific for you, for both of us, but the difference is I’ve been there.” 

If Allen has fought the better boxers, then Carty has graced some big occasions, at the 3 Arena and Wembley among others, but the blunt Yorkshireman put it plainly when asked about the prospects of them walking out to a stadium of 80,000 people.

“I think when we go to the ring walk, we’ll both be petrified. 80,000 people is a lot of people. I’ll be shitting myself, I’m not going to lie. With 80,000 people, I’m going to shit myself, big-time. So will Thomas as well.” 

Maybe the old buzz isn’t dead just yet.