By Scott Gilfoid: British domestic level heavyweight Dave Allen (13-3-2, 10 KOs) has reportedly reached an agreement to face 2016 Olympic super heavyweight gold medalist Tony Yoka (4-0, 3 KOs) on June 23 Paris, France.
The fight is scheduled for 10 rounds, although it probably won’t last that long.
The 6’7” Yoka is the much better fighter of the two, and there’s little question that he’s going to beat the 26-year-old Allen with ease. The only question is whether it goes the distance of winds up with a stoppage. Allen has a pretty good chin, as he went 10 rounds against Dillian Whyte in losing a lopsided decision to him in July 2016. That was before Whyte started punching with more authority with his surgically repaired left shoulder. It’s doubtful that Allen would last 10 rounds against Whyte now.
Allen was stopped in the 7th round by Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz in December 2016. Allen’s loss came against Lenroy Thomas, who beat him by a 12 round split decision in May of last year. Allen fought Thomas in a rematch last March, but the fight was scored a technical 1st round draw. Allen suffered cut from a clash of heads that required that the fight to be stopped.
Allen will be fighting on June 16 against Lee Carter (1-4) in a four-round fight in Doncaster.
The 26-year-old Yoka has been facing weak opposition since turning pro in June 2017. Despite winning a gold medal in the 2016 Olympics in beating Joe Joyce by a questionable decision, Yoka hasn’t looked good as a pro. He’s not a power puncher, and he looks very, very timid in beating journeyman level competition. In Yoka’s four fights as a pro, he’s beaten Cyril Leonet (13-9-3), Ali Baghouz, Jonathan Rice and Travis Clark. For an Olympic gold medalist, Yoka’s opposition has been woeful. You’d expect much better opposition than this for an Olympic gold medalist.
Yoka’s management clearly don’t want to follow the path that 2-time Olympic gold medalist Vasyl Lomachenko has took in fighting the best fighters in the world start in fight No.2 as a pro. In Lomachenko’s second fight as a pro, he took on Orlando Salido and lost a 12 round split decision. This was when Salido was still a good fighter. I’m not sure how much Yoka can improve fighting guys like Dave Allen. I mean, Yoka needs to be at least taking on fringe level heavyweights at this point because there’s no upside in being put in with guys with zero talent.
Allen has some punching power and a good chin, so he might make it interesting for a round or two against Yoka. I don’t see there being an upset, but it could be interesting if Allen is able to get to the chin of the 6’7” Yoka with his power shots. Allen, 6’3”, will be giving up four inches in height and eight inches in reach to Yoka, which is going to make it awfully tough for him to have any chance of winning the contest. Yoka vs. Allen is a compelling type of fight because it’s such a mismatch on paper. Will this fight be as bad as it is on paper?