By Charles Brun: Highly popular heavyweight Dave “White Rhino” Allen (17-4-2, 14 KOs) landed a peach of a left hook to the body of former WBA ‘regular’ heavyweight champion Lucas “Big Daddy” Browne (28-2, 24 KOs) to knock him out in round three on Saturday night on DAZN and Sky Sports at the O2 Arena in London, England.
Browne, 40, attempted to hit Allen with a slow right hand, and he expertly avoided it, and came back with an immediate left hand to the body that sent the Australian Browne down on all fours on the canvas. Browne was in too much pain to get up after the knockdown. He looked into the crowd while he was down and shook his head to let them know he wasn’t going to get up. The referee Marcus McDonnell then waived off the fight. The official time of the stoppage was at 0:58 of round three.
Afterwards, Allen’s promoter Eddie Hearn said that there’s a possibility that Allen, 27, could face either David Price or former heavyweight title world title challenger Dereck Chisora next. Allen kidded around that he wouldn’t mind fighting for a world title against IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua on June 1, since he still doesn’t have an opponent after American Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller failed three drug tests and was pulled out of the fight. Joshua still needs an opponent.
“I’ve proved I can punch at a high level,” said Allen to Sky Sports moments after his huge victory over “Big Daddy” Browne. “It’s a very good win.The left hook to the body was beautiful. I’m the most famous man in Doncaster for a week, it will be great.”
Browne proved to be very hittable in this fight, as he was leaving himself open to counter right hands and left hooks each time he would a power shots. Browne was fine when he was just jabbing, but wasn’t satisfied with fighting conservatively against the younger Allen. He showed too much ambition, and left himself open when he missed a slow right hand in the third. Allen immediately took advantage of the situation by connecting with a perfectly placed left hook to the body. That punch would have taken out anyone in the division. It was thrown with a lot of power by Allen. Like in his previous fight against Kamil Sokolwski, Browne was leaving himself open to getting countered whenever he would throw a punch. Sokolowski was hitting Browne with left hooks when he would throw his right hands. Browne started throwing jabs after getting hit with a lot of hard left hooks in that fight. Tonight, Browne didn’t last long enough to try and make some adjustments against Allen.
“Beautifully placed body shot,” said Sky Sports commentator Carl Froch after the left hook to the body that Allen flattned Browne with. “Nobody expected David Allen to knock out Lucas Browne to the body.”
Most boxing fans expected Allen to stop Browne with a head shot like Dillian Whyte did. Allen was trying, but Browne took his head shots for three rounds, but he couldn’t handle it when he went downstairs.
Allen would likely be the favorite to defeat 35-year-old David Price if he’s next. Price’s ability to take a punch is no longer there at this point in his career. Additionally, Price’s stamina is just terrible that it’s beyond belief. He’s more of a three round fighter at this point in his career, and he’s not capable of fighting for an entire round without gassing. Allen would likely have an easier time against Price than he did tonight. Chisora might be a little big, too strong and too experienced for a fighter like Allen, you never know. Chisora looked shot tonight in his 10 round decision win over Gashi. Allen might have too youth, stamina and quickness for Chisora, but he would have to be able to take some big shots in order to last long enough to beat him.
In other boxing results on the card:
Derek Chisora UD 10 Senad Gashi
Josh Kelly UD 10 Przemyslaw Runowski
Joe Cordina TKO 6 Andy Townend TKO6
Conor Benn UD 8 Josef Zahradni