Dave Allen takes another tough challenge when he faces Filip Hrgovic on Saturday in Doncaster, England, where the \u201cWhite Rhino\u201d will have home field but, on paper, little to nothing more by way of advantage.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s take a look at the matchup.<\/p>\n
Bad Left Hook will have LIVE results, updates, and reactions starting from 2:00 pm ET on Saturday, May 16, 2026.<\/p>\n
Dave Allen\u2019s recent form<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one thinks I\u2019m gonna beat him, and I know that. All these people here, all my mates and that, I know they want me to win, but they don\u2019t think I\u2019m going to win. \u2026 I\u2019m one of life\u2019s losers that ends up winning. So what have I got to lose? I ain\u2019t got nothing to lose. I\u2019m gonna try and punch his f\u2014ing head in, and that\u2019s a fact.\u201d \u2014 Dave Allen<\/a><\/p>\n Any time you talk about Dave Allen, it feels like you have to lead up front with the fact that he is, indeed, a popular fighter. He sells tickets. People like him. He\u2019s an everyman star, a humble, blue collar scrapper whose personality is opposite the normal trash talk and bluster we hear from professional boxers of the modern age.<\/p>\n How else to explain Allen\u2019s continued presence in main events at age 34, seven years removed from his third round knockout win over Lucas Browne in an O2 Arena main event? It was a magical sort of night, but it was, like, Rudy magical. It was a moment. It was lovely. We all cheered. But it didn\u2019t last. David Price, whose own career had been a disappointment, pretty much manhandled Allen three months later.<\/p>\n Since the loss to Price \u2014 and again, we\u2019re talking about 2019 here \u2014 Allen has been something of an odd presence in the sport. He won a club level fight per year from 2020-23, doing nothing else, and then in September 2023 stepped it back up against Frazer Clarke. Clarke dominated. Allen looked lethargic and overmatched, and retired from the fight after six rounds due to a perforated eardrum.<\/p>\n He came back in 2024 for two more club-level wins, easy victories against very low-level opposition. Then he was matched with Johnny Fisher, a \u201cDave Allen\u201d sort of fighter in that he\u2019s likable, affable, and popular despite pretty obvious flaws that will keep him well short of world level status. He was, frankly, robbed in a split decision loss to Fisher in December 2024 in Riyadh, then stopped Fisher in the fifth round of a rematch five months later in London.<\/p>\n Once again, years after the win over Browne, Allen had a little momentum. He fought Arslanbek Makhmudov, a fringe contender if you\u2019re being somewhat generous, and lost clearly over 12 rounds last October in Sheffield. Most recently, he returned in February for another of his club-level wins, and now he has another notable fight.<\/p>\n Filip Hrgovic\u2019s recent form<\/p>\n The 33-year-old Hrgovic (19-1, 14 KO) was a good amateur for Croatia, winning gold at the 2015 European Championships and bronze at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, where he lost a tight decision to Tony Yoka in the semifinal round.<\/p>\n As a professional, you could argue Hrgovic has been a little disappointing, but he hasn\u2019t been, like, Audley Harrison or David Price or, well, Yoka-level \u201cdisappointing.\u201d He was more built for the pro game than Audley or Yoka, who both won gold medals, and he\u2019s just better than Price was.<\/p>\n Hrgovic turned pro at 25 and it wasn\u2019t until he was 30 that he took his first serious professional challenge, when he scored a debated win over Zhilei Zhang in 2022, coming off the canvas early to get the win on points over 12 rounds. He\u2019s 4-1 since then, but none of the wins have exactly blown anyone\u2019s doors off, though they\u2019ve all been solid, other than Mark De Mori, who has one of modern boxing\u2019s most absurdly empty, gaudy win-loss records. (That win, actually, is somewhat similar to Allen\u2019s over Lucas Browne, just nobody made a big deal of it and it\u2019s not so inspiring when an Olympic bronze medalist crushes a creaky, aging Aussie.)<\/p>\n The loss to Dubois doesn\u2019t much matter here, in one sense. Dubois is a lot better and more dangerous than Dave Allen. But the way it happened could be relevant.<\/p>\n Who will win Allen vs Hrgovic?<\/p>\n Allen has fought good fighters many times. It generally has not gone well for him.<\/p>\n He lost to Dillian Whyte by a near shutout decision in 2016.Later that same year, Luis Ortiz stopped him in seven.Olympic gold medalist Tony Yoka, in Yoka\u2019s fifth pro fight, stopped Allen in the 10th round in 2018.And then there\u2019s Price, Clarke, and Makhmudov.<\/p>\n What are his best wins? Browne. Fisher. And probably Nick Webb way back in 2018. (Webb, as a side note and excuse to send you over to our Chukhadzhian vs Donovan coverage<\/a>, will be fighting today in Germany.)<\/p>\n Being totally real and just analyzing the results purely as the results and not enjoyable moments in watching boxing, it\u2019s not the resume of a contender. And Allen says all the time, clearly, that he knows he\u2019s not really a contender.<\/p>\n Allen is easy to see as an inconsistent performer. But much of that comes down to the levels of his opponents. It\u2019s actually fairly consistent that when he steps up against more talented opposition, he loses.<\/p>\n Hrgovic is perhaps not a great fighter, by which we\u2019d mean he\u2019s not truly elite level. But he\u2019s very good, at the least. More accurately, you might say his style and performances do not inspire. He\u2019s got two decent wins in a row over a faded Joe Joyce, who hung in there for 10 full rounds, and David Adeleye, who was outclassed. Daniel Dubois stopped him, but Daniel Dubois is a pretty punishing guy, too.<\/p>\n