- Open workout at Frenchgate Centre, Doncaster — doors at 3:30, work on the pads from 4. Allen's hometown crowd packed it out.
- Allen looked relaxed, sharp, and ten pounds lighter than the last time we saw him. Hrgovic ground through his routine like it was Tuesday afternoon training.
- Three days to Eco-Power Stadium. The vacant IBF Intercontinental belt is on the line, and so is Allen's whole story.
Right Then — Doncaster Has Adopted A Fight Week
Right then. The Frenchgate Shopping Centre in Doncaster does not normally play host to a world-level heavyweight fight week. This afternoon it did. Dave Allen and Filip Hrgovic shared the same makeshift ring for the public open workout, three days out from Saturday's Eco-Power Stadium main event, and the place was rammed by 3.45pm — fifteen minutes before the official doors at 3.30 even formally opened. The crowd in Doncaster have already adopted Allen, and they were not pretending Hrgovic was the second main event.
Make no mistake, this fight matters to this town. Eco-Power Stadium is a five-minute walk from where Allen grew up. The Doncaster heavyweight is fighting for the vacant IBF Intercontinental belt against the most decorated heavyweight available to him, and the local lads in the front rows at Frenchgate today were not there to politely clap.
Allen — Lighter, Sharper, Smiling
What I take from the workout is that Allen looks better than he has at any point in the last 18 months. He is visibly leaner than he was when we last saw him at the start of the year — sources in his camp have hinted he's come into this fight at about 17 stone 4, which would be the lightest he's been since the John McCallum days. The pad work with his cornerman was sharp, the right hand was popping, and the body shots were thudding.
Allen's mood matters too. He has spent the last fortnight insisting on every podcast and at every public appearance that this is not a mismatch. He picked the Bayern Munich-of-boxing line up from Ring Magazine and ran with it, and at the workout today he was relaxed and chatty with the crowd. That tells me a fighter who has accepted the size of the task, not one who is trying to hide from it.
Hrgovic — Working Like It's Tuesday
If you know, you know — Filip Hrgovic is not a fight-week showman. His workout was deliberate, technical, and almost entirely defensive — slips, blocks, footwork, a few measured combinations. There were no superstar moments. There was nothing for the cameras. He went through his ten minutes like it was the second hour of a Croatian training camp in October.
That's the Hrgovic problem in a nutshell. He is not here to entertain anyone, and the fights where he gets dragged into a show have not always been his cleanest performances. Doncaster on Saturday — partisan home crowd, late ring walks, a noise level Hrgovic has never had to deal with against him in this country — is exactly the kind of test of mental discipline he prefers to avoid.
What Andy Lee And Peter Fury Are Watching
Allen's coach Lee was relaxed on the floor at Frenchgate. Hrgovic's team — including Peter Fury, who has been quietly running the technical side of his camp — were more guarded. The body language was telling. Lee was happy for Allen to share moments with the crowd. The Croatian camp wanted Hrgovic in, through, and out.
Three Days From Eco-Power — The Read
Saturday is a proper crossroads fight. Win and Allen finally has a belt on his CV, twelve years and 35 fights into a career that has been more about character than coronations. Win and Hrgovic gets his world-title ranking back to where it was before the David Adeleye decision win felt slightly underwhelming.
Let's not beat around the bush — Hrgovic is the favourite. He should be the favourite. The technical levels are not the same, and Hrgovic's amateur pedigree means he can box a smart twelve rounds without ever giving Allen a clean shot at the chin. The route to an Allen win is a war, ten rounds of pressure, and a Hrgovic who gets tired and gets careless in front of a Doncaster crowd that is properly howling at him.
Luke's Prediction
Hrgovic on points, a wider unanimous than the British crowd will want, with one nervous moment around round seven when an Allen overhand catches him cleanly and gets a stadium on its feet. Allen survives the late rounds without ever finding the moment to turn it. Brilliant fight to watch live. I would not be entirely shocked if Allen pulls it out — but I'm not predicting it.
Open workout final word — the build-up has done its job. The crowd is in. Doncaster fight week is alive. Saturday at Eco-Power will be one of the noisier British heavyweight nights of the year.