Carty vs Allen: Controversial No-Contest Shakes Croke Park

At Croke Park on Saturday night, a heavyweight sideshow to Katie Taylor’s homecoming turned into something far stranger than anyone had planned.

What was billed as a rugged co-main event between Dublin’s Thomas Carty and Doncaster veteran David Allen officially lasted just 1 minute 22 seconds. In reality, it will linger far longer than that – in slow-motion replays, in medical reports, and quite possibly in a boardroom.

Carty, 30, left the ring not on his feet, but head-first through the ropes and into a ringside table, the fight ruled a first-round no-contest after a chaotic, disorienting sequence that his camp now say should never have been allowed to unfold as it did.

“Two illegal blows” and “loose ropes”

In a strongly worded statement after the bout, Carty’s team laid out their version of the incident in stark terms.

They say that after just 90 seconds of the opening round, the Irish heavyweight had already absorbed “two illegal blows to the back of his head” on the Katie Taylor undercard. The second of those, they claim, left him momentarily dazed, scrambling for stability rather than trading punches.

That was when the night took its surreal turn.

“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,” the statement said, “propelling Thomas head first out of the ring causing him to strike his head on a ringside table.”

From there, the fight was effectively over. Carty, suspected to have suffered a concussion, was deemed unfit to continue on the advice of the ringside doctor. The contest was wiped from the record as a no-contest, the spectacle overshadowed by concern.

Carty was taken to hospital for a brain scan, his team confirming later that he is now back home and healthy. The relief on that front is obvious. The arguments about everything else are only just beginning.

Allen: “I’ll probably speak to the board”

On the other side of the ring, Allen saw a very different fight. Or at least, the start of one he believes he was on the verge of winning.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, the 34-year-old made it clear he feels short-changed by the no-contest ruling and is already considering his next step.

He said he will probably “speak to the boxing board and ask if it can be overturned to a win”, arguing that his physicality and pressure were already breaking Carty down.

Allen described himself as “a bit too strong and rough” for the Dubliner and insisted the decisive punch was not malicious, just misdirected in the chaos of close-range work.

“I’m not aiming for the back of anyone’s head ever,” he said, explaining that he had been trying to “clip him round the ear” – a shot he says is a regular part of his arsenal – only for Carty to turn into it and take the blow round the back of the head instead.

“It wasn’t a big shot,” Allen maintained. “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 that point, events unfolded too quickly even for the man throwing the punches.

“He’s turned into and he’s gone through the ropes,” Allen said. “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.”

The veteran admitted he lost his temper in the confusion, stunned by the sight of his opponent disappearing through the strands.

“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 ring and beyond

Between Carty’s camp citing “two illegal blows” and “loose ropes” and Allen pushing for the result to be flipped to a victory, the fallout from this one-round anomaly is heading straight for official desks.

Was Allen’s punch a routine, if rough, shot that went wrong in a split-second? Were the ropes secure enough for a high-profile card at one of the country’s most iconic venues? Should there have been a count? Or was the ringside doctor’s intervention, and the no-contest ruling, the only sensible way to end a fight that had veered into dangerous territory?

For now, the record books show nothing more than a bizarre no-contest on a night dominated by Katie Taylor’s win over Flora Pili. But Carty’s team want more than a line on BoxRec. Allen wants more than a fight that vanished after 82 seconds.

The punch has landed. The fall has happened. The real decision might yet come away from the bright lights of Croke Park, in a room where there are no ropes to give way.