Chaos Erupts in Carty vs Allen Fight at Croke Park
On a night meant to celebrate Katie Taylor at a packed Croke Park, the heavyweight co-main event descended into confusion, anger and a hospital dash in just 82 seconds.
Thomas Carty’s camp say their man was the victim of “two illegal blows” and “loose ropes” before the Irish heavyweight was sent tumbling out of the ring in a surreal first-round no-contest against Doncaster’s David Allen.
Chaos at Croke Park
The bout had barely begun on the Taylor–Flora Pili undercard when the drama erupted. After just over a minute, Carty took a shot to the back of the head. Moments later he was out of the ring, head first, crashing into a ringside table.
A statement from Carty’s team laid out their version of the sequence.
“After just one minute and 30 seconds of round one, Thomas Carty had received two illegal blows to the back of his head at Croke Park on the Katie Taylor undercard,” it read.
They claim the second shot left the 30-year-old briefly dazed and reaching instinctively for support.
“The second blow causing Thomas a momentarily lapse forcing Thomas to reach for the ropes to regain his balance and the loose ropes gave way, propelling Thomas head first out of the ring causing him to strike his head on a ringside table.
“In turn this caused Thomas a suspected concussion and unfortunately an end to this fight on instructions from the ringside doctor.”
Carty was taken to hospital for a brain scan but has since returned home and is described as healthy.
The fight was officially ruled a no-contest, but nobody left satisfied. Not the crowd, not Carty, and certainly not Allen.
Allen wants the result changed
Allen has never been one to hold his tongue, and he took to his Youtube channel to make his case. He insists there was nothing malicious in the blow and believes he should be awarded the victory.
He said he will probably “speak to the boxing board and ask if it can be overturned to a win”.
In his view, the contest was already tilting decisively his way.
The 34-year-old described himself as “a bit too strong and rough” for Carty and argued the ending punch was not targeted at the back of the head, but thrown to “clip him round the ear”.
“When I'm heavy and fit, he weren't going to hurt me in a million years. So, I smiled at him and he didn't like that,” Allen said.
“I'm not aiming for the back of anyone's head ever, but I am aiming about here [the ear]. It wasn't a big shot, I tried to clip him round the ear as I always do, and he's turned his head into it. It's gone round the back of the head.”
From there, chaos took over.
“From there on, I don't know. It's not for me to say what's happened. He's a good guy, I do like him... I've caught him behind the head, not on purpose, he's turned into and he's gone through the ropes.”
Allen’s frustration was obvious in the moment and remains so on reflection. He felt the referee should have treated the incident like any other knockdown.
“At the time, I said to the referee, ‘are you not going to count?’ If that was in the middle of the ring I'd have won by stoppage. I lost my rag a little and said, ‘look, he's jumped out the [expletive] ring.’ I couldn't quite believe it, really, I was a bit shocked.”
Questions for the board – and the ring
Two narratives now collide. On one side, Carty’s team point to illegal blows and unsafe, “loose” ropes that failed at the worst possible moment. On the other, Allen insists he simply landed a routine shot, his opponent turned into it, and the ring infrastructure and officiating did the rest.
Somewhere in the middle sits the British Boxing Board of Control and the wider authorities, who may yet be asked to pore over the footage, the rulebook and the medical reports.
For Carty, the priority was always going to be his health. For Allen, the priority is clear: he wants this on his record as a win, not a bizarre no-contest he feels robbed him of a legitimate stoppage.
The fight ended without a conclusive punch, without a count and without a victor. The next move belongs not to either heavyweight, but to the officials who must decide whether this freak finish stands – or becomes one of those rare results that gets rewritten long after the final bell.
