Dave Allen’s trainer, Jamie Moore, says that he doesn’t know where the Doncaster heavyweight’s ceiling is as he prepares the 33-year-old for his upcoming fight with Russia’s Arslanbek Mahkmudov.

The 12-round heavyweight fight will take place at Sheffield Arena on October 11. DAZN will broadcast the action.

Allen (24-7-2, 19 KOs) has said that he chose the heavy-handed Makhmudov as he carries an air of fear and threat that would help push him through training, but he and Moore wouldn’t have jumped directly into a dangerous fight that they had no chance of winning.

Makhmudov (20-2, 19 KOs) has an intimidating presence, but the 36-year-old has had his weaknesses exposed twice over the past 20 months.

In December 2023, the excellent Agit Kabayel quickly broke him down with well-placed body shots and forced a fourth-round stoppage. Last August, he had no answer for Guido Vianello’s accurate punching and his face was badly swollen by the time the ringside doctor halted the action in the eighth.

Moore knows that the fight offers Allen a potentially dangerous but winnable path to a major fight.

“I think the risk-reward is worth it for Dave at this stage of his career now,” Moore said during an appearance on talkSPORT Boxing.

“He can't afford tick over fights. If he's going to be moving in that trajectory where he needs to earn good money and change his family's life, this is the type of fight. He’s one win away from fighting somebody like a Joseph Parker or a Deontay Wilder.”

For a long time, Allen meandered aimlessly. He would rush into hard tests before he was ready for them and then think himself out of winnable fights.

A recent two-fight series with Johnny Fisher revitalised his career. After losing a controversial split decision in their first meeting, Allen took the popular “Romford Bull” apart in the rematch, stopping him in five rounds.

He now has an unlikely opportunity to change the course of his career and alter the widely held perception that he is a capable fighter who has allowed his talent to go to waste.

Moore has been an admirer of Allen’s talents since they first came into each other’s orbits more than five years ago.

Now that Allen is fully invested, Moore believes that his past difficulties can now help him succeed.

“He's just turned 33 but the weird part about this is that Dave picked up so much ring craft in those years where he wasn't fit,” Moore said.

"Because he was fighting such good fighters, the experience that he got and the way he had to look after himself because he wasn't conditioned, he's now carrying that into this stage of his career. He’s got all that experience, that durability, that ring craft and, now he's fit with it, he can apply his offensive stuff added to the defensive stuff that he’s picked to over the years. He's created such a rounded fighter."