'Disgraceful decision' – Johnny Fisher beats Dave Allen but boxing ...

Johnny Fisher won a highly controversial decision over Dave Allen on Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury's undercard that had the boxing world up in arms.

Few gave Allen even the slimmest of chances against Fisher heading into Saturday night.

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The undefeated prospect won the Boxing Writer's 'Young Boxer of the Year' award in 2023 and had blown away his previous 12 foes.

In stark contrast, Allen had been largely written off by the boxing community following devastating defeats to David Price and Frazer Clarke.

Everything looked to be going as expected through four rounds, with Fisher controlling proceedings and landing several eye-catching shots.

But in the fifth stanza, Allen detonated a massive right hand on Fisher's chin, which sent the young prospect tumbling to the canvas for the first time in his career.

When he regained his footing, he was caught on unsteady legs by a heavy flurry and narrowly made it out of the round.

In the proceeding rounds, Allen continued to pour on the pressure, causing damage to Fisher's nose and ear.

To his credit, Fisher soaked up the punishment well and came back firing.

Before this weekend, Fisher had never gone beyond seven rounds.

However, he was made to work by his veteran foe.

In the tenth and final frame, the 'Romford Bull' bit down on his gumshield and threw hell to the wind but most felt it was too little, too late.

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However, two of the judges scored the fight in Fisher's favour by margins of 95-94 and 95-94 while the third had it for Allen 96-93 to hand the prospect a contentious split decision.

As the scorecards were read out, a cacophony of boos rang out around the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia while talkSPORT's Gareth A. Davies and Spencer Oliver were equally as mystified by the scoring.  

"That is a disgraceful decision," said Davies. "Dave Allen did the better work in nearly every round."

"Those scores are diabolical," added Oliver. "I love Johnny Fisher, but the winner was Dave Allen."

Social media was filled with similar reactions.

Fellow British heavyweight Dillian Whyte branded the result 'bulls****'.

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And esteemed trainer Dave Coldwell tweeted: "That’s absolute B******!!! They’ve just robbed Dave Allen of his night.

"Bulls***. You go and spoil a tremendous fight like that by robbing a man of his rewards. Bulls***."