By Barry Holbrook: UPDATE: Christopher Lovejoy will be taking on Dave Allen (18-5-2, 15 KOs) in a 10-round bout on the undercard Oleksandr Usyk vs. Dereck Chisora on Sky Sports Box Office and DAZN on October 31st.
Allen vs Hammer Off
Adding Dave Allen to the card will make many UK fans happy, considering that he’s one of the more popular heavyweights. The opponent that Allen is being matched up against in Hammer would seem to be out of his league, but you never know.
It’s possible that Allen can pull off an upset if he can push the fight to Hammer. The German fighter has a good chin, though, and it might be realistic to assume that Allen will be able to knock him out.
Hammer is beatable
The last time that Hammer was stopped came against Tyson Fury in 2015. Additionally, ten years ago, Mariusz Wach scored a knockout of Hammer in the sixth round.
Allen, 28, has a chance to break the top 15 to become a top contender if he beats the 33-year-old Hammer on October 31. ‘The White Rhino’ Allen recently got back to his winning ways with a third-round knockout win over journeyman Dorian Darch (12-12-1, 1 KOs) last February in Sheffield, England.
Allen looked good in dispatching Darch in an impressive win, but he had the perfect opponent for him to shine against in that fight.
Before that, Allen was stopped by David Price by a 10th round retirement last year in July. That was a bitter pill for Allen to swallow, seeing that he was in consideration at the time for a nice payday match against former WBA heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin.
Instead, Dillian Whyte took the fight with the Russian fighter and was promptly knocked out.
For Allen to get in position to make some respectable money, he’s going to need to put together a winning streak, starting with his fight against Hammer. It’s going to be hard for Allen to get past Hammer, as this is a fighter that stopped Price
The Romania born Hammer, who’s original name was Cristian Ciocan, will be looking to pick up his second fight since losing to Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz by a 10 round unanimous decision in March 2019. Hammer was over-matched against the talented two-time world title challenger Ortiz.
Allen needs this win over Hammer
Hammer stepped it up a level against Alexander Povetkin in 2017 but was totally outclassed in losing a one-sided 12 round decision. He didn’t have the boxing ability or the power to compete with the Russian talent.
Hammer’s best career wins:
- David Price
- Erkan Teper
- Konstantin Airich
- Danny Williams
- Leif Larsen
- Michael Wallisch
- Sherman Williams
In Hammer’s last fight, he defeated journeyman Saul Farah (71-25-3, 62 KOs) last December.
“I’m really happy to fight Christian Hammer,” said Allen. “He’s highly ranked and is a tough, strong man. A win here puts me back to fringe World level. He’s got a win over David Price so that would half put my defeat to bed.”
It appears that Matchroom Boxing is still trying to assemble the Usyk vs. Chisora as the contest date of October 31st.
Earlier on Friday, Matchroom announced the news of Amy Tinlin vs. Carly Skelly being added to the card. The other fights on the card are as follows:
- Lee Selby vs. George Kambosos Jnr
- Tommy McCarthy vs. Bilal Laggoune
Matchroom might continue to add fights as they go along. As of right now, the undercard is still thin and not loaded with enough compelling fights to attract U.S boxing fans to subscribe to DAZN to watch the Usyk vs. Chisora fight.
British fans might not have enough quality fights on the card to want to pay to see it on Sky Box Office.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5k3KuiPst0Q
If Chisora, 36, had a better shot at beating Usyk, it would be a card that fans from the UK would be more willing to order it on PPV. But Chisora (32-9, 23 KOs) is a big underdog in the fight, as he should be with his nine losses on his record.