IT took Dave Allen just 20 seconds of their initial encounter to decide that Jonny Fisher was ‘not very good’.

The British heavyweights met at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh back on December 21 with Fisher winning via a razor sharp split decision after 10 rounds.

However it was a result which split opinion with many believing that underdog Allen, who dropped Fisher in the fifth and controlled large portions of the fight, had done enough to win.

But 26-year-old Fisher, who moved to 13-0 (11) as a result of the win, responded to the criticism of the decision by agreeing to an immediate rematch. They will now meet again in the main event of a DAZN show at the Copper Box Arena, London on May 17.

Allen has established himself as a cult figure in British heavyweight boxing over the course of his 23-7-2 (18) career to date, which has included fights against Dillian Whyte, Luis Ortiz and Tony Yoka. But where does he rank the Romford Bull among his opponents to date?

“To be honest with you,” he says. “Within 20 seconds of the fight I thought ‘you’re not very good’ and for that first fight I was only half fit.

“I was as fat as butter when I started camp and I’d not had a real fight for years. But when that fight started, 20 seconds in, I realised that everything had landed. I thought ‘this is going alright'.

“Before the fight I thought he’s going to be big and strong and come out fast and he’s going to hit like f**k. I thought he’d be ragging me all over and it’s going to be the hardest round of my life.

“But then I just thought, here, have that feint. He was buying everything. He was not very good.

“I thought I won the fight but I left it too close. Really I wasn’t fit enough but I will be for this.”

Allen’s trainer Jamie Moore has insisted that his fighter will be even better at the Copper Box after a long and purposeful training camp.

Allen said: “It was a decent camp for the first fight and I trained hard but I was 21 stone when I started it. So really the first four or five weeks was just fat camp. I was just walking, going to the gym, tapping the bag, I was f***ed.

“So now I’m in a good position. I haven’t got to do that fat camp at the start and can just concentrate on boxing.

“He’s going to do have to do something out of the ordinary to beat me.”