David Allen stops Ariel Esteban Bracamonte – RESULTS

By Boxing News - 11/10/2018 - Comments

By Jim Dower: In a tougher than expected fight, domestic level heavyweight David ‘White Rhino’ Allen (16-4-2, 13 KOs) had to struggle to defeat Argentinian Ariel Esteban Bracamonte (8-2, 5 KOs) in stopping him after seven rounds on Saturday night on the Oleksandr Usyk vs. Tony Bellew undercard on Sky Box Office and DAZN at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England.

Referee Chris O’Connor stopped the fight at 3:00 of round seven.

The fight was stopped after the 7th round by Bracamonte’s corner due to a bad cut that he’d suffered on the bridge of his nose. The cut had been bleeding badly for much of the fight, leaking blood on Allen and the canvas.

In round seven, Allen landed some hard clubbing hooks to the head of Bracmonte that whip-lashed his head. It was a surprise that the referee allowed the fight to continue for the entire round without him stepping in to halt the fight.

After the fight, Allen apologized about his lackluster performance, saying that his conditioning wasn’t what it should have been. Allen further stated that he two busted eardrums that had occurred during the fight.

“That was awful. I want to apologize to everyone here,” said Allen to Sky Sports News after the fight with Bracamonte. “He was tough, really tough, and hit really hard. Another wake-up call. How many do I need? There no excuses, I’m not fit enough, I’m not conditioned enough.”

Bracamonte was landing some vicious shots all throughout the fight. Although Allen was landing even more huge shots, he left himself open for counter shots. Bracamonte took advantage of Allen’s nonexistent defense to clobber him with power shots that would have knocked out

Allen’s promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing needs to sort out what he’s going to do with him. The way that Allen, 26, fought against Brancamonte tonight, he’s not going to be able to beat the British level heavyweights like Hughie Fury, Sam Sexton and Daniel Dubois and Nathan Gorman. Hearn can argue that Allen is more popular than those guys, but if he can’t beat them, then his career is not going to thrive. Hearn will need to continue to be careful with how he matches Allen if he fails to improve as a fighter. Hearn is going to need to come up with a plan of what he wants to do with Allen, as he can’t put him in with any of the talented fighters in the division without him getting knocked out.

Allen is too slow to beat the top dogs or even the domestic level guys. If Hearn’s plan is to carefully match Allen against only guys that he thinks he can beat, then he might be fine, but even then, it’s not clear whether the wheels won’t come off. Allen was supposed to beat Lenroy Thomas last year, and he was shockingly beaten by him by a 12 round split decision. Thomas later knocked out by heavyweight prospect Joe Joyce in two rounds last May. Joyce’s win over Thomas showed where Allen is in terms of his level. If Hearn is fine with having a limited domestic fighter like Allen on his payroll, then that’s good for him.

Tonight wasn’t the first fight in which Allen has problems with his stamina. He gassed out in his losses to Lenroy Thomas and Tony Yoka. Earlier in Allen’s career, his stamina looked better. He was able to fight harder without gassing in his fights against Dillian Whyte, Luis Ortiz and Jason Gavern.

This fight was by no means a one-sided contest tonight. Allen got the victory, but he was nailed by monstrous uppercuts and hooks from Bracamonte that would have knocked out other fighters. Allen taking those shots full force was worrisome. Had Bracmonte not suffered the cut, it might have been interesting due to Allen having gassed out. Allen was pushing the pace, but he looked exhausted by the 7th round and was literally fighting on fumes.

In other boxing results on the card, welterweight prospect Josh Kelly (8-0, 6 KOs) wiped out an over-matched Walter Fabian Castillo (13-3, 3 KOs) by a 1st round knockout. 2016 Olympian Kelly knocked Castillo down in the 1st. After the action resumed, the 24-year-old Kelly flurried on Castillo with a storm of shots that resulted in the fight being halted. The official time of the stoppage was at 2:55.

Kelly was hoping to fight a better opponent than Castillo, but this is all his management could get for him. Kelly is hoping his next opponent will be a better one.

In other action, cruiserweight Richard Riakporhe (8-0, 7 KOs) defeated journeyman Sam Hyde (13–11, 6 KOs) by an eighth round knockout.