Sam Sexton selected by BBBofC to fight for British title

By Boxing News - 06/09/2016 - Comments

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By Jeff Aranow: The British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC) has rejected the idea of unbeaten Dave Allen (9-0-1, 6 KOs) fighting for the vacant British heavyweight title later this year. They see the 24-year-old Allen as lacking in experience right now for him to be challenging for the British belt. Instead, the Boxing Board has selected 31-year-old Sam Sexton (22-3, 8 KOs) to fight for the British title.

Sexton will be facing Dillian Whyte (16-1, 13 KOs). Sexton has won his last seven fights since going through a rough patch with his career in getting knocked out by David Price by a 4th round knockout in May 2012, and Dereck Chisora.

Those fights showed Sexton’s limitations as a heavyweight. He wasn’t able to compete with either of those guys. Sexton’s best wins of his career came against Martin Rogan, who he defeated twice in a row in 2009.

“Sam Sexton is more of a proven entity than myself, but I see that as a bad thing – he’s been beat two times for the British title already,” said Allen to skysports.com. “I bring something different to the table. Me and Dillian both are more outspoken characters. For boxing fans – even though Sam Sexton is more proven – they want to see something different.”

Allen was fighting in obscurity until recently when he defeated 39-year-old American journeyman Jason Gavern (27-21-4, 12 KOs) by a fourth round stoppage last March on the undercard of the Kell Brook vs. Kevin Bizier card in Sheffield, UK. Beating Gavern wasn’t a big enough win to show whether Allen is a quality heavyweight or not. What hurts Allen’s credibility is the four-round draw he was held to by Bulgarian Plamen Nikolov (1-1-2, 1 KOs) March of 2014. Allen should have been able to easily beat Nikolov, but instead he fought him to a standstill in a fight that could have easily been given to Niklov.

“It’s a shame but good luck to them both. I still see myself winning that British title at some time this year,” said Allen.

Allen isn’t ready to be fighting the likes of the 28-year-old Whyte. The only way he can or should fight for the British title is after Whyte gives up the belt, because he’s not in the same league as him. Beating Gavern doesn’t mean that he’s going to be able to compete with Whyte. Allen would have problems trying to beat Sexton. That would be a really tough fight for him. Allen needs more seasoning before he faces guys like Sexton and Whyte.

Sexton has decent punching power, but he struggles against guys that are coming at him with a lot of power. Whyte is probably as big a puncher as David Price when he’s landing his best shots. Sexton will need to show a better chin and good defensive skills for him to be able to handle the kind of power that Whyte will be hitting him with.

The British Boxing Board would do better to select someone like Chisora to fight Whyte for the British title rather than Sexton, because this fight will likely be a mismatch. Whyte has too much power, size and youth for Sexton from the way I see it.