Fisher needs new gameplan against Dave Allen, says former champion George Groves

Johnny Fisher needs to adopt a new gameplan for his rematch this weekend against Dave Allen, says former world champion George Groves.

Making his remarks on the Fightlens podcast, Groves said that while Fisher had picked up a split-decision victory in their first bout in Riyadh, he would need to make adjustments for their return this Saturday at the Copper Box Arena in London.

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Groves said: “Johnny Fisher’s probably thinking, ‘Mate, you took me as far as you could go, and I still came back and I bullied you and beat you up in that last round. It’s a fight that, for Johnny Fisher, needs to be extremely different. You don’t need to be in any sort of bother or trouble in this fight. You just need to stick to your plan.”

Fisher and Allen’s first fight, held earlier this year, ended in controversy with Fisher’s hand raised despite him suffering a heavy knockdown in the fifth round. The mire over who should have won the fight was so intense that the pair have gone immediately into a rematch, to be held on Saturday at the 7,000-seat arena in East London and broadcast live on DAZN.

Groves warned that Allen would bring many tricks to the table.

He said: “He’s a wily old pro. He’s good at what he does. He’ll kill the clock, hit you on the break. He’ll do all those old-school tactics to get through and get the win. Fisher’s got to make sure that this doesn’t happen.”

The former super-middleweight champion went on to reflect on what it means to have faced another man in the ring.

He said: “When you’ve been in there, when you’ve sparred someone, and when you’ve been under those lights, you do feel like you know someone. And [Allen] might even feel like he took a bit of Johnny Fisher’s soul that night because he took him to a dark place.”