David Allen Exposes Unpaid Sparring Sessions with Anthony Joshua
“The White Rhino” David Allen has revealed that two-time heavyweight champion of the world, Anthony Joshua didn’t pay him for his time when Allen was brought in for sparring.
In a recently uploaded video on the ‘David White Rhino Allen’ YouTube channel, a channel created by the heavyweight boxer, Allen went through some of the world champions that he was brought in to spar.
David Allen on sparring Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua and more
Some of the names include Wladimir Klitschko, Oleksandr Usyk, Tyson Fury and of course, Anthony Joshua. Allen revealed the amount of money he got paid by each of these boxers in a video titled, “What did I get paid sparring heavyweight world champions?”.
He initially disclosed what the living arrangements and food were like when he was brought in to spar Wladimir Klitschko in 2014 in Austria, before stating that he got paid €1500 for the week despite only being there for 5 days.
David Allen went on to mention how the accommodation and food were both underwhelming during his time with current heavyweight champion, Oleksandr Usyk when he sparred with the Ukrainian in 2020.
But said he collected around €2000 for north of 20 to 25 rounds and has previously revealed that Oleksandr Usyk had knocked him out.
But it was the time with former Olympian, Anthony Joshua that didn’t sit right with the White Rhino after looking back on his sparring work with him.
David Allen says Anthony Joshua “took the p**s”
He and ‘AJ’ supposedly got on really well when the pair were helping each other in the ring between 2012 and 2015, until his more recent relationship with the Gypsy King, Tyson Fury, ‘soured’ his friendship with Joshua when Fury made a comeback in 2018 and asked Allen to spar with him.
Initially, David Allen admitted money wasn’t at the forefront of his mind as he was young and still trying to learn as much as he could from other boxers. But his thoughts changed as he got older and more experienced in the boxing industry.
“As time went on, I started to get paid for sparring other boxers. And I started to question, why has he never paid me? To be honest, in my head I’m thinking, he’s took the piss out of me here”
“I was sparring 2 or 3 times a week, I’m doing 6, 8, up to 10 rounds a time with him. But was that down to Rob McCracken or was that him? I’m not sure.”
David Allen blames himself for not getting paid by Anthony Joshua
He told his audience that over time he realised that he should’ve been looking after himself more, saying that he should have been smarter.
Allen felt that going to the sparring sessions alone instead of taking someone with him could have been the reason he accepted not getting paid by Anthony Joshua at the time, due to him turning up to a lot of the gyms on his own.
He finished by saying he felt like he did deserve to get paid as he gave “a hell of a lot” of himself, but in the end, blamed himself for not ending up with a paycheck.