The pair have established a close relationship training at the same Suffolk Punch boxing club, but when it comes to assessing his progress Hamilton-Allen values honesty that is as brutal as the punches Wardley throws in the ring.
“He’s so real, he’s so straight to the point,” he said.
“You don’t want people in your ear saying ‘oh yeah, you’re great’, you want them to tell you ‘this is bad, that’s bad, this is what you need to correct’ and he does all of that for me.”
As a boy, Hamilton-Allen took part in martial arts, before an injury forced him to stop, but in 2019 he decided he needed something else to “fuel” him and turned to boxing after attending an event hosted by Wardley.
With his mentor’s encouragement he entered the white-collar boxing world and soon had five victories to his credit.
“I always believed in my own ability but it was baby steps, don’t rush it, just take your time,” he explained.
His next move was into amateur boxing, but for all his natural ability, that was not plain sailing with a couple of defeats showing he still had things to learn.
Hamilton-Allen, though, believes his approach is better suited to professional boxing.
He said: “There was always pros around the gym and mixing with them you learn to fight like that – you pick little bits from them and put it into my style.
“I kind of work in [going through] gears and that’s perfect for the pros.”
His other co-manager, Matt Brennan, agrees.
“He’s watched Fab, he’s watched [local middleweight] Ryan Copland, guys like that and thought ‘this is my style, this is the way I want to fight’ and that’s why we accelerated him as quick as we could to get that pro licence,” he said.
