Unbeaten Croatian heavyweight contender Filip Hrgovic, the current #1 ranked IBF contender, says he will be in attendance for the Oleksandr Usyk-Daniel Dubois fight on August 26. Hrgovic, who retained both his IBF mandatory status and his unbeaten record by stopping a game Demsey McKean on the Joshua-Helenius card, may or may not have a good shot at beating Usyk (should Usyk, the reigning and defending WBA/IBF/WBO heavyweight champ, defeat Dubois) when he gets his shot.
Twice in a row, Hrgovic has left fans wondering just how good he really is, this due to a, shall we say, less than impressive performance. Last August, Hrgovic, who was knocked down early in his fight with Zhilei Zhang and then went on to look pretty awful for long periods, laboured to a close decision win that went his way but was much debated. Hrgovic, who had recently lost his father, later commented that this one was his “worst night” but that he was still able to get the win. Maybe it was Zhang’s southpaw stance that served to trouble Hrgovic, that and the sad passing of his dad?
What then to make of Saturday’s laboured, at times ugly win over McKean? Hrgovic managed to get the stoppage in the 12th and final round, but until that point Hrgovic had, well, he had laboured, and he had looked far from great. McKean, another southpaw and like Zhang unbeaten upon stepping into the ring with Hrgovic, made the 31 year old from Zagreb look almost as bad as Zhang had made him look. Maybe ring-rust added to Hrgovic’s latest subpar showing?
Because Hrgovic, who won so much as an amateur and was for some time looked at as the man to avoid at heavyweight has, for whatever reason or reasons, put on back-to-back showings that have seen his stock drop in the eyes of some. Has Hrgovic peaked? Is Hrgovic simply not as good as we once thought? Did Hrgovic suffer the misfortune of having TWO bad nights on the spin (it can happen)? Does Hrgovic have a problem with southpaws? Is Hrgovic another fighter destined to fail when it comes to making his pro career as special as his amateur career?
Your guess is as good as mine, but just imagine if you had watched Hrgovic’s last two fights and nothing else of his career. You sure wouldn’t think of him as anything special, would you? On the plus side, Hrgovic can perhaps improve on his past two fights by staying active, Hrgovic is still unbeaten and in line for his shot at Usyk (or whoever holds the IBF strap when the time comes), and Hrgovic has shown his toughness and his resiliency in his two overall poor showings.
But can Hrgovic become a world champion? Will he fight again before he gets his title shot, and if so, when and who against? Now 16-0(12), it is possible Hrgovic has regressed as fighter since 2019/2020, when he was scoring some impressive KO’s (albeit over lesser fighters than Zhang and McKean).
As far as his chances of winning the title are concerned, Hrgovic had better be able to improve his game and soon. Maybe this is too harsh a case of criticism, but Hrgovic’s performances in his last two fights have just not been good enough.
Agree or disagree?
