The reason Dave Allen and Christopher Lovejoy failed to weigh in ahead of their scheduled heavyweight bout has been explained.
Promoter Eddie Hearn has divulged why Allen or Lovejoy won’t feature on the Oleksandr Usyk vs. Derek Chisora Pay Per View.
Allen was due to battle the undefeated American on Saturday night. Hearn now says Lovejoy is under contract with Don King.
Apparently, Lovejoy had told Hearn he was not under contract to any other company. King has proved the theory wrong.
Despite discussions during the week, King dug his heels in and wouldn’t allow Lovejoy to compete on the bill.
Effectively, the old schooler killed the fight completely dead.
The Allen vs. Lovejoy encounter had sparked the most interest on the PPV undercard, with a mass of bets waged with UK bookmakers.
Activity from online betting was largely due to the record held by Lovejoy. The American is 19-0 with 17 first-round KO’s and has never been past the third round.
CHRISTOPHER LOVEJOY
Lovejoy also hasn’t fought anyone of note and has largely dined out on Mexican also-rans in a career only fought in that country.
Allen has now been dropped from the whole show through no fault of his own. He issued an apology late on Friday.
“I am gutted. I am sorry to say my fight with Mr. Lovejoy will not be going ahead. I will not be fighting Saturday,” stated Allen.
“I am in maybe the best shape of my career, but luck has not been in on my side. I’ve been told I will fight before the year is out, and I’ll start training for that this evening.
“I’m very sorry for letting people down, but this is a situation well out of my hands,”
PRESERVATION
King’s move could be a stroke of genius, though, as far as Lovejoy’s profile is concerned. The exposure received by an undefeated unknown quantity is priceless.
A mass of controversy had already been caused by the fact the World Boxing Association ranked Lovejoy despite fighting a series of no-hopers.
From all nineteen of his knockouts, Lovejoy’s victims had only amassed 57 wins between them.
Despite this fact, WBA President Gilberto Mendoza rated who could be the worst world-ranked heavyweight of all time.
Saturday night was going to be Lovejoy’s chance to prove it against Allen. Going into the fight, the 36-year-old was a massive underdog despite his deceptive CV.
We will now have to wait a little longer for Lovejoy’s exposure as King prolongs the inevitable by preserving his man’s shocking record that much further.
WBN Editor Phil has over ten years of boxing news experience. Follow WBN on Facebook @officialworldboxingnews and Twitter @worldboxingnews.
