The White Rhino, 33, is due to face off with The Lion, 36, on Saturday (11.10.25) at the Utilita Arena in Sheffield, and Allen has now admitted he is anxious to share the ring with 6’5” Makhmudov.
Speaking on a media call, Allen said: “This’ll be the first time where if I get beat, it’s like, I’m not as good as I maybe hoped I was. I think this fella’s like a top 20 guy.
“He’s a bit off the very top. I think he’s a fair bit off the very top, but if I beat him, I have to be in the conversation of being a very good fighter, and I’ve always thought I could be on my day. This is my day. I’m 33.
“I've trained hard, so I’m nervous. I’m nervous for two reasons. One, I think he’s a dangerous fight. This is a fella that’s going to come and look for me, and two, if I lose, I’m not sure if it’s [whether] I’m not as good as I thought I was, but I’m not as good as I hoped I was.”
Allen added he had “never” been as nervous for a fight before.
He noted: “Unill probably the first Johnny Fisher fight, I never had a care in the world. I was just doing the boxing for the crack, really. It was what it was. It was a good time for me.
“I had a good time, and I boxed because it was something to do, but now it’s like I say it’s my job now. I’ve got a contract that says if I lose, I can come back.
“I can come back to good fights and that, but I really want to win, and what’s making me more nervous is Sheffield Arena.
“We’ve got about 8,000 tickets. Me and Ed [promoter Eddie Hearn] thought we’d do about 2,000, and that was a worry. That was only going to do a couple of thousand, and I don’t want to let them all down, really.
“I don’t want them to go home sad. I want them to go home happy, and so, yeah, that means more to me.
“For me, winning, people say, ‘Oh, the money, all that.’ It’s not really about that. I want to send everyone home happy. That’s what would make me happy. I want everyone to come to Sheffield and want to come back again.”
Even so, Allen said his trainer Jamie Moore has installed a new sense of maturity in him.
He explained: “The actual desire to fight left me a long time ago. Luckily, I have to train now, because what got me through hard fights and beating some good fighters was the fact that I was a bit of a b******. I could fight, but now I have to train now. That’s the honest truth.
“People say, ‘why have you started training now?’ I have to, because the edge I had before had a bit of an edge to me … That’s gone now, so I have to train, to be honest.”
