“If only he took it seriously.”

Those word have followed Dave Allen throughout his career.

From Dillian Whyte to Luis Ortiz and from Tony Yoka to Lucas Browne, Allen spent years bouncing from dangerous fight to dangerous fight seemingly without any kind of plan or structure and, for the most part, with precious little training behind him.

His heart and toughness earned him cult hero status with boxing fans but although he enjoyed a couple of memorable moments - a third round stoppage of former WBA Regular champ Lucas Browne being the standout - the maverick approach did little for his development and prevented him from fulfilling his genuine potential.

After a loss to David Price in 2019, Allen’s star dimmed. The Yorkshireman retreated back to undercard slots and small hall shows and spent four years meandering his way through the sport.

Last September, Allen, 23-6-2 (18 KOs), was given the chance to revive his career. Matched with then unbeaten Olympic bronze medallist, Frazer Clarke, he performed as if he would have rather been anywhere else and retired after six rounds with a perforated ear drum.

Fifteen months and two low profile wins later, he has been handed the chance to turn over another young hopeful and, this time, he has set his mind on taking it.

Allen has played his part in some big events but this weekend’s fight with Johnny Fisher, 12-0 (11 KOs), in Saudi Arabia dwarfs anything else he has been involved in and he enters the biggest night of his career from the soundest base he has operated from.

The penny has finally dropped and Allen is taking this opportunity very seriously indeed.

“I've been pro I've been pro 12 years now and this is the first camp I've ever done which sounds mad really,” Fisher told The Ring.

“I'm getting a bit older and I'm a normal human being these days as well so I've been able to do it. It’s been ten and a half weeks now.

“I've never been capable of doing these camps because my life - until the last couple of years - has not been normal enough to have a normal 12 weeks, never mind a normal 12 weeks in the gym.

“Obviously, I've got kids now. One's two, one’s one and only now have things got normal really. The Frazer Clarke fight, while my life was was on the straight and narrow at that point, I wasn’t at the races. With two weeks to go before the Clarke fight, I I went over to train with Jamie [Moore]. This time, I’ve gone over 12 weeks before but I know Johnny Fisher is a threat really, I wouldn’t say I underestimated Clarke but I was disinterested.

“I got it massively wrong but I can only look forward now.

“These training camps, I can see why they do them now. It’s mad really. I wouldn't say I’ve got regrets because I'm not really the kind of guy that has regrets about stuff but I can see now what I should have been doing at least.”

Most fighters use the threat of a real fight and the private realization that defeat is a genuine possibility to spur them on through training. The idea of being hurt and embarrassed makes those long calorie deprived runs and gruelling, unwanted final rounds of sparring that little bit easier to get out of bed for.

As you may have gathered from Allen’s recollection of his preparations for the fight with Clarke, the 32-year-old isn’t most fighters.

Although he is approaching the fight with Fisher with a totally different mindset, it isn’t the thought of fighting a heavy handed, 6ft 4in tall knockout artist called ‘The Romford Bull’ that has motivated him to move away from home and turn up at Moore’s gym in Astley every day for three months.

Allen has been pushed through training camp by a more overriding feeling of urgency. The thought of fighting Fisher may not concern him but, belatedly, a genuine fear of leaving the sport without fulfilling his potential does.

“I'm not really a massive worrier. We all get nervous on fight day, of course, but I’m pretty bomb-proof really in terms of fighting and stuff,” he said. “I’ve been doing it pretty much all my life. The only the difference with this fight, I'm coming to the end now. I’m 33 soon. I feel like I could box on for a few more years but will the opportunities be there if I don't perform this time? Probably not, so every time I wake up, I know if this fight doesn’t go well it may be the end of the road and not out of choice and that's not a nice place to be in so I need to perform in order to continue doing what I love doing.

“I’ve honestly not given Johnny Fisher one thought all camp,” Allen continued. “I don't think about him. I don't watch him. I genuinely think I am superior in every aspect as a boxer. Boxing is boxing but a lot of it is physicality as well. That is stuff that’ll play a factor but in terms of boxing ability, he’s gonna have to play to my tune on the night not the other way around so he’s got to worry about me.”

Allen hasn’t been coy about declaring himself a British title level fighter and, given just how busy the British heavyweight scene currently is, there are any number of young, ambitious fighters that he could have targeted to begin slowly working his way back towards the top of the domestic standings.

It is hard to imagine any of them igniting the same level of motivation and excitement in him that Fisher has. In fact, if Allen could have hand picked any of the current crop of heavyweights, he would have chosen the 25-year-old.

Fisher ticks every box. He is enormously popular and beating him offers Allen a high profile shortcut back to prominence. Most importantly, however, is the fact that although Fisher is young, fit and rapidly improving, Allen is extremely confident of beating him.

Allen doesn’t see this as another low risk, high reward shot to nothing. It is a fight that he genuinely believes that he should win and, for the first time in a long time, one that he has prepared for accordingly.

“There isn't a better fight out there because he's by far the biggest name at the level we're at. He's one of the biggest names in British boxing at the moment. You couldn't say he's not because of the tickets he sells, his old man [Fisher’s famous father, John] and that,” he said.

“His ability isn't anywhere near that notoriety. I look at the Johnny Fisher fight and if you take all the followers and the ticket sales away, I look at a big strong novice really and I just think, ‘Look, if I'm not capable of beating him, then I'm not half the man that I was five years ago.’

“So, he's the most winnable big fight I could possibly be in and I'm not underestimating him but they're the facts. So, if I am anywhere near as good as I was when I beat Lucas Browne, in the shape that I’m in currently then I know that I’ll beat him.

“Because in reality, in terms of boxing, he ain't that good. He brings lots to the table that you have to worry about but in terms of boxing ability, it’s night and day. I was winning national amateur titles before he’s even picked up a pair of gloves. So, yeah, I fully expect to win and that's nothing I ever say. I'm not really a massively confident guy but in the shape I'm in and looking at Johnny Fisher, I don't believe I can't not win this fight.”