OK mate we will stick to the official round betting terminology where the fight win price odds of 1/4 is poor compared to the high odds available on an Allen stoppage in round 3. Even bigger if one uses the Betfair Betting Exchange.
Darch isn't even your stereotypical journeyman, 25 fights in 8 and a half years, he makes Billy Joe Saunders look busy, so you can definitely see why he'd go for the chance of making bigger money from doing what he was going to do anyway, lose.
If I hadn’t have heard these rumours then watching the fight I wouldn’t have thought fixed. Darch looked legitimately hurt. Though did look as though he could’ve got up the second time. Allen did look like he was messing around in the first two and could’ve starched him earlier but maybe he wanted to give the crowd a bit of vfm.
That roll, that was the thing that got me thinking. Watching it live I thought the whole thing was a sham but I just thought it was two s**t boxers with Darch, at this stage of his career, just there for the payday rather than to make it competitive. Allen was infuriating with his s**t Tyson Fury impersonation, like a kid in the playground imitating his hero.
Allen once shared a fan made video of him dodging a few punches against Bracamonte, the Argentinian punchbag that smashed Allen's face in before gassing. Since then it seems people think Allen has some sort of defence, a myth I thought David Price put to bed!
What I mean is in this instance if true it would be just be seen as match fixing. Spot fixing involves betting on something that has very little or no bearing on a result of an event , so the game , match, fight result isn't actually fixed but minor aspects of it are. They'd be quite a difference in consequences between the two offences, unlike football cricket etc there aren't many betting markets in boxing where spot fixing is possible. Certainly the amount matched on Betfair on round 3 is out of the ordinary for an event of this nature, got to be easier to lose in a certain round though than win in one I would think and not sure why Allen would risk future appearances on Sky etc for a few hundred quid. Wouldn't be surprised if we never hear anymore about it though, could just be a pre fight rumour that has snowballed and resulted in this money going on.
I like Dave, but he is prone to desperate measures and utter stupidity. He got battered by Ortiz over a small matter of 10k owing to the wrong person. If he can get in the ring with Ortiz to pay a 10k debt then we know the mindset. He even stated he would fight for free if Eddie paid his plane and hotel costs this year. Ortiz; "I'd never met a fighter who hurt my hands from all the jabs I hit him with".
Oh I agree he can be a loose cannon at times but he's got a lot more to lose now than when he fought Ortiz. Really cant see him turning down circa £200k to fight Dubois then risk everything for a few hundred quid .
I am a Betfair (exchange) user and did not see a market for this fight unless it was pulled just before the fight started.
I doubt it would be a case of Darch and Allen telling all there mates to lump on round 3 it is more likely (if it was fixed) they were approached by a syndicate looking to launder money and offered a fixed fee.
If it were the Asian cricket markets maybe , but for an undercard fight featuring these 2 with VERY little liquidity in the market it just wouldn't be worth it even for these supposed syndicates. Who knows why an unusual amount of money was put on round 3 , a fix, a rumour , a coincidence etc suspicious betting patterns are quite a common thing , mainly because the UKGC, the bookmakers and the governing bodies are quite hot on it , very rarely does anything come of it or is ever proven.
