A painful defeat forced David Allen to drastically change his diet and the heavyweight swapped crisps for kale ahead of his appearance on the Anthony Joshua-Carlos Takam bill.
‘The White Rhino’ returns to action against Scott Saward on the undercard for Anthony Joshua’s world title fight with Takam in Cardiff this Saturday night.
Since a heartbreaking loss to Lenroy Thomas in May, Allen admits he was forced to adopt a more dedicated approach to the sport, which has seen him shed around two-and-a-half stone after weeks of a disciplined diet and training regime.
We asked Allen to compare his previous bad eating habits with his new-found professional preparation…
Can you tell us about your old daily diet?
Breakfast: I would probably have some leftover chocolate and crisps from the night before. A few Crunchies and Kit Kats, maybe a Curly Wurly. Flame Grilled McCoys, if they are any left. Whatever I can find really.
Lunch: Six pieces of belly pork, with gravy, and a few more Curly Wurlys I imagine. We used to buy them in packs of five, so there would be a few of them lying about. I used to dip the Curly Wurlys in the gravy – it’s a Yorkshire thing that.
Dinner: At this point, I would probably have a KFC, get a boneless banquet and go through a few buckets.
Snacks: Have a few Curly Wurlys here and there, just graze on chocolate, go through litres of coke a day.
I would go to my Nan’s a couple of days a week. Cheese and ham sandwich, with cheese and onion crisps, a few packets of Smarties, a Bounty, Jaffa Cakes. If I wanted more than that, I was being greedy apparently, so I was sent off home.
How much did you weigh then?
After I boxed Tom Dallas, on August 1st I was 19st 4lbs. It’s about 10 weeks ago.
What made you drastically change your lifestyle?
My dad had a word in my ear and told me ‘everyone thinks you’re no good’. I know the ability is there. I’ve just got to apply myself.
It took him saying that really for me to put myself into gear and do it. This is the first time I’ve put eight-nine weeks together of consecutive training and this is as good as I can be on October 28.
What is your food intake like now?
Breakfast: Plain porridge with a coffee, but now and then to remind myself how far I’ve come in life, I have some jam on toast. When I was growing up, I used to have jam and toast and warm milk.
Lunch: For the last 10 weeks I’ve not touched a Curly Wurly, not one. If I win the Commonwealth title, I can have as many Curly Wurlys as I want, but I’ll probably have something a bit more classy like a big bar of Cadbury. It will be nice to have money to buy some decent chocolate.
I have my meals sent to me now and they are already prepared with the right amount, and the right times to eat them. It’s protein, carbohydrate and vegetable. For example, chicken, potatoes and kale.
Dinner: A different meat. White meat at lunchtime, then red meat at dinner.
Snacks: Fruit and nuts.
Can you tell us about your new training regime?
Morning: Meet at 7am at the running track with trainer Mick Marsden. 800m x 10, with a minute rest. Some days I do a long continuous run, and other days we’ll do shorter stuff.
Afternoon: Back in the gym at 2pm, doing boxing work. Sparring, working the pads and the bags.
Evening: At 9pm, we’re in doing conditioning. Circuits as I don’t really do weights. Work on my stomach, just trying to look like Anthony Joshua really.
Current weight: 16st 13lbs
