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Allen's Mind on Hopkins, Heart in Iraq
By Sean Stowell (April 4, 2003)
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When the International Boxing Federation's top middleweight contender Robert Allen isn't thinking about a third fight with Bernard Hopkins, he's thinking about the Marines in the desert of Iraq battling their way towards Baghdad.
Allen served in the United States Marine Corps' First Marine Division from 1988-92. He was a machine gunner manning an M60 machine gun. During the first Gulf War in 1991, Allen didn't go to Kuwait because he was a part of the Marine Corps boxing team, winning the U.S. National Championship at 156-pounds in 1992.
This Saturday he will take on Jesse Aquino in the 10-round main event at Silver Star Resort & Casino in Choctaw, Miss. The fight will be shown via tape delay the next day on Fox Sports Net's Sunday Night Fights. While he isn't taking Aquino lightly he knows that it is important for him to win this bout impressively to show he deserves the top spot in the IBF.
"Bernard is not the type to vacate titles," Allen told MaxBoxing.com from his home in Atlanta. "I'm the best middleweight and the cream rises to the top. I'm one of the best out there."
Allen, 34-4 with 25 KOs, and Hopkins have met twice before in two rather ugly fights. The first time the two squared off in August of 1998, both fighters held one another, and Hopkins was pushed out of the ring by referee Mills Lane who was attempting to break up one of the clinches. The bout was ruled a no contest after four rounds when Hopkins was unable to continue.
In February of the next year, Hopkins retained his IBF crown by way of a seventh-round TKO.
"He threw me around like a rag doll in the second fight," Allen said."I was having problems with my promoter and all sorts of other problems but now if you put me in with Bernard there's gonna be some funk."
"If you aren't one dimensional with Bernard, he'll try to frustrate you by holding and hitting low. Those Philadelphia guys come to fight," Allen said. "This fight could get really nasty."
After his TKO loss to Hopkins he would go on to lose his next fight to Ali Ennebati in Cannes, France.
"People were calling me a coward and said I was a has-been," Allen said. „I was fighting for a couple grand each fight. There was a lot on my mind then, I was broke and having all sorts of problems."
Allen began to earn his way back to the top of the division when he fought Marlon Hayes in 2001 for the vacant NABF and USBA middleweight titles. He dropped Hayes in the second to capture both belts. He followed that victory with a unanimous decision over the tough Dwain Williams. In his most recent outing Allen knocked out Kevin Hall in the first round in Temecula, Calif.
Recently, when he's not thinking about winning the middleweight title, Allen has been glued to the TV following the progress of his former division over in Iraq.
"I think about what I'd be doing if I was over there," Allen said. "I'd
either be on my machine gun or in a body bag. The Marines are always the first ones in to defend our nation."
Allen feels motivated to win his fight against Aquino to prove all his doubters wrong and to make his Marine Corps brothers proud.
"I've got my soldier's fire and I'm the hungrier guy," he said.'I'm going to destroy his weaknesses and use my punching power. On Saturday I'll do what everybody thought I could only do in 1998, and this guy is the one that has to deal with me."
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E-Mail Sean Stowell at seanstowell@hotmail.com
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