British heavyweight Dave Allen has revealed how much he was paid by some of boxing’s biggest stars.
Allen, 32, boasts a record of (23-6-2) and has opened up on life as a paid sparring partner for the likes of Tyson Fury, Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua.
On his YouTube channel he claimed that he pocketed a tidy £1200 for five days work when helping Wladimir Klitschko prepare for a fight in 2014.
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He said: ‘First of all, in terms of where we were put up it was like a mansion in the Alps, it was a beautiful, beautiful, place.
‘Probably the nicest place I’ve stayed, if not a little boring really. I was only there five days but there was no where to go or nothing to do.
‘The food we had on site on the hotel was just an unbelievable place, the food was incredible and on top of that they paid me almost €1,500 a week.
‘I was only there for five days but they paid me in full as well, they could’ve probably paid me less but they paid me the full 1,500.
Oleksandr Usyk paid £840 for his sparring sessions but Allen was less than impressed with the food and environment in the Ukraine.
He continued: ‘That money’s good, €1,000 a week I was over the moon with.
‘But where we stayed it was the worst environment, I think it was the Ukraine Olympic training base.
‘I personally, it wasn’t nice. The food was poor, I was surviving on bread really.
‘I found this canteen on the second week, I was surviving on bread and chocolate bars and crisps.’
Allen says he was paid around £300-per-week to spar Tyson Fury that covered his fuel, but admits he didn’t expect to earn anything as he considers ‘The Gypsy King’ a friend.
Allen said: “We were mates and it was kind of like, ‘Look, come over do the first few rounds. You get something out of it yourself.’
“He’d go on and spar other sparring partner and you could see he was putting a lot more into the shots and the intensity would change.
“And I wasn’t expecting to get paid for it, to be honest. I was happy to go over, help out, it was getting me out the house and I would get some rounds.
“But he’d always pay me. Maybe between £100-£150 a time, could be two-three times a week so after petrol and that I might make £300 a week.”
On Anthony Joshua though he was slightly bitter about not receiving a single penny from the former heavyweight champion.
The pair started sparring as amateurs, so there was no money paid and then Joshua burst on to the heavyweight scene as a professional.
He said : ‘As time went on, I started getting paid for sparring other boxers and I’m starting to question, ‘Why has he never paid me?
‘I should’ve been smarter, it’s no one’s fault but my own. But yeah, I did think I deserved to get paid. It was professional boxing.’
Allen also revealed he was paid £675 a week for sparring Pole Artur Szpilka for two weeks and Robert Helenius paid £420 weekly.
