Saturday’s rematch between Johnny Fisher and David Allen is coming too early for Fisher, according to Allen’s confident trainer Jamie Moore.

The heavyweights fight again at the Copper Box Arena in London, five months after Allen – in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – came so close to inflicting the 26-year-old Fisher’s first defeat.

At a time when the heavy-handed Fisher was considered the significant favourite and Allen, 33, equally widely considered declining, Allen proceeded to knock Fisher down in the fifth round and for the first time in the 13th fight of Fisher’s career – transforming their contest to the extent that the popular heavyweight was perhaps fortunate to earn a split decision and not record his first defeat.

The date between a puncher made to look one-dimensional by an experienced 31-fight professional regardless hasn’t been followed by further development fights for the one reliant on his punch. Fisher’s promoters Matchroom are risking his admirable ability to sell tickets in the belief that the 10 rounds they shared will prove sufficient, but Moore – whose former junior welterweight Cameron Vuong (now training under Ben Davison) was similarly fortunate to earn a decision over his fellow Briton Gavin Gwynne – believes that he hasn’t been given the necessary time he requires to significantly improve.

That Fisher has fought only 41 rounds and Allen 139 may yet prove in Fisher’s favor. Allen’s career was regardless revived by what unfolded in December; he appeared the freshest he has since the days in 2016 when he suffered his first defeats – by Dillian Whyte and Luis Ortiz – and in the same way that he was often once a naive, under-prepared fighter, the relative gamble on Fisher’s reputation and potential could come at a cost.

“My instinct was Johnny’s a young kid and got a load of improvement to make, so why would they rush back into a rematch?” Moore said to BoxingScene. “His ceiling being a lot higher than what he showed in the first fight – I thought they’d give him a bit more time to give him some room for improvement. I’ve got to take my hat off to him because they’ve got a lot of confidence in him. We’ve got to anticipate there’s gonna be a lot of improvement. 

“The improvement he can make over the next few years is massive, because potentially he can be very, very good. [His trainer] Mark Tibbs is doing a great job with him. Dave Allen really rates his power; he said he can really hit. For Dave to say that, you know for a fact he’s a puncher – [and] I don’t think he needs me to say that ‘cause of the way he’s ironing out people in the past. 

“But you’re getting in there with such a crafty, savvy fighter. The first thing [Allen is] going in there with the mindset is, ‘Do not get caught with anything stupid off this big puncher, especially early’ –  you’re halfway there. “All you’ve got to do then is use that experience and bring him into your type of fight. Without giving too much away, when a fighter’s inexperienced it’s a lot easier to lure him into your type of fight. [Fisher’s] not ring savvy and crafty enough to go, ‘I know what he’s doing here – I’m going to avoid those situations.' They’re a bit more honest than experienced fighters.

“I take my hat off to Johnny. We’ve never had the opportunity to see what he was made of up until that first fight with Dave, and I tell you what – he’s got some balls. There was a certain point where I thought they were gonna pull him out or he was gonna walk away, but he bit down on his gum shield and really dogged it out. That’s one thing he can take away from the first fight. A fighter doesn’t know if he’s got that in him ‘till his back’s against the wall, and he really showed he’s got a bit of bottle.”

Allen’s profile and popularity – which regardless has never reached the height of Fisher’s – contributed to him being overmatched against Whyte, Ortiz, Tony Yoka, the heavy-handed David Price, Frazer Clarke, Fisher and others, and therefore six of his seven defeats. As with Fisher throughout the course of his 10 rounds with Allen, and Vuong throughout his 10 with Gwynne, he has learned lessons as a fighter against some of the toughest opposition. 

Saturday’s rematch may yet even be determined by the extent to which he can apply them while resisting the self-destructive streak that in the past has undermined his chances of succeeding. The risk Price – one of Allen’s previous opponents – once took in pursuing an immediate rematch with the veteran Tony Thompson ultimately proved damaging; Allen is not as proven an opponent as Thompson, but nor does there exist the faith in Fisher that once existed in Price.

“I’ve got a right soft spot for Dave Allen – I think a lot of people have,” Moore continued. “The vast majority of fighters, if they came to me and asked me to coach them with the kind of discipline Dave Allen had going back to when I first started to work with him, I’d be like, ‘Listen, if you’re not taking this serious, I’m not taking this serious, so I’m not gonna do it.' But I just liked him, and I’ve got a real soft spot for him, and he’s a very good fighter.

“I’ve had five years now to deep dive into Dave Allen and analyze him and get to know how he ticks, and I understand how he works now. He’s ended up trusting [me and assistant trainer Nigel Travis] as well, and that was a big element in him listening to someone as a coach. He’s never really got to the point where he’s been there long enough to trust them, believe what they’re saying and follow through with it, and we’ve got there with him now. It’s took a bit of time; it’s took a bit of persistence.

“The Frazer Clarke fight [in September 2023], he wasn’t physically prepared – nowhere near as much as he could have been – plus we barely sparred for it. I was very conscious about rushing him into sparring when he’s not fit, so you can’t get your timing; your distance; your sharpness. I pulled him out of the fight, and he’s very hard on himself. I’ve seen him say it in interviews – ‘I quit in that fight.' By no means did he quit because he was arguing back with me in the corner. I pulled him out because I knew he’d got past the point where he had any chance of winning, and the only thing he was going to do was accumulate damage over time.

“For Johnny Fisher, he had a good camp, and it was the first proper training camp he’d had where I got to the end of it and was saying, ‘Dave, you’re in good shape.' I said it afterwards – I believe he was at around 60 per cent of his total potential of where he could get to if he’d had a bigger starting point, and he done himself a right favor. He kept himself in shape after the fight, he was back in the gym in January, and he just treaded water, ticking over, going through the daily routines all my fighters do when they’ve not got a fight date coming, hoping that the rematch would happen.

“Dave, because he was never really fit when he fought, he’s ended up developing this style where he’s very good at damage limitation; he weathers storms; he knows how to control the tempo of a fight; he’s got all the old-man tricks where he slows it down. Add on to that all that experience he’s got under his belt – he’s got quite a good engine now, especially after this last 10 weeks where he had a much better starting point. Johnny Fisher’s gonna come a lot better this time, and probably a little bit different tactically as well, so we’ve gotta make sure you’ve got every box ticked. ‘One of the main boxes is that you’ve got a good engine – make sure if Johnny tries to outmanoeuvre and outbox you and doesn’t want to come near you, we’ve gotta be able to chase him down and cut the ring off. You can’t be flat footed; you can’t be blowing; if you do, you’re not gonna have anything left to give him when you get there. We’ve also got to anticipate that Johnny’s gonna be mega fit and he’s gonna come out and have a dogfight, and we’ve got to be ready for that as well.'

“I feel like we’ve got him there now. We’ve got him to the point where we’ve got every single box ticked, and the only way I see Johnny winning the fight is if he absolutely irons Dave out. From Johnny’s point of view, he needed more time in between to improve as much as he would need to improve to have a massive difference from the first fight. He’ll be better, but I don’t feel like there’s been enough time in between to make a huge difference. It’ll probably be as close, but Dave has got a bigger engine; more experience; more in his arsenal in terms of variety. Johnny’s in front of his own fans and he’s gonna wanna knock him out because of what happened last time. I don’t feel like he’s got the experience to shy away from that.

“[Allen’s] probably the most ambitious I’ve seen him in the last five years. We have some odd conversations, as you can imagine, but the way I’ve tried to put it across to him is, ‘Dave, I’ve had so much time for you over the years – even before we was working together. What you’ve now put yourself in the position of is being 33 with all that experience under your belt, boxing some of the top fighters in the world at short notice, and getting through them with a lot of miles on the clock, but rarely any conditioning at all.' With that comes a lot of ring craft and ring generalship – getting yourself through rounds and situations. ‘You’ve now got all that experience with an engine, and you’ve put yourself in such a good position in just the nick of time – if you were 35, 36, you wouldn’t be able to perform because you’d be getting past it.' He was quite smart – he went away and just had some four-rounders on smaller shows where there was no pressure on him, kept himself active against lesser fighters, no more miles on the clock, just treading water waiting for the next opportunity, and luckily it came his way while he’s still young enough.”