I'm a bit apprehensive about the Itauma vs. Hrgovic fight.

Well, you did start the thread... Kinda expect to get a few opinions?

 

So really just power? And stamina
Important things absolutely but I can't see a single other trait Whyte would be ahead on

Chin, timing, footwork, Ring IQ, punch selection etc
Hrgovic is better than Whyte is every area
I could go on but feel the above is enough

Whytes chin has always been suspect so to think Hrgovic couldn't stop him is naive

 

I think prime for prime it would be interesting. Whyte won't knock hrgovic out. And take away possible peds when he was at his best (oscar rivas) who knows how much remains. It's like holyfield - would he have achieved much at heavy without being massively doped?

With peds the oscar rivas whyte version beats hrgovic. Whyte had a great jab that Fight. I think the Parker version wasn't as good and hrgovic would not have gotten knocked down, whyte did struggle with the pace in the end and hrgovic's boxing ability should have taken a close points decision I would assume.

It's all fantasy of course, noone can really say.

But i think to put them on a similar level is justified and relative to their respective 'era' even more so. Also one has ro remember, whyte got a lot of good fights, even though he was also excluded from fighting the top fighters for their titles. Hrgovic struggled to get any good fights until he seemed to lose steam.

 

I would agree, those are the big two - ring IQ is a tossup, Whyte was dirty and less naive, maybe streetsmart rather than higher IQ... In an amateur bout or one with a strict referee, different story.

But, again, it's not just who's winning on a spreadsheet - boxing doesn't work that way... You need a combination of strong attributes to make a quality points fighter, a different combination of strong attributes to make a KO artist, etc. And as a combination of attributes, Hrgovic just doesn't make for that effective a fighter, in the whole.

He got knocked out by some huge punchers (Joshua, Povetkin, Itauma) - Hrgovic is nowhere near that category...
Getting knocked out by Fury, who's also not a huge puncher, is the only real indication that his chin was poor - but he'd been blasted out by devastating KO before that.

Could Hrgovic KO a post-Povetkin Whyte? Maybe, not definitely.
Could Hrgovic KO a pre-Povetkin Whyte? Maybe, but probably not, IMHO.

Except as a sum of their parts... And that's the point.

 

Yes, it's all theoretical, always is with these hypotheticals... Doesn't mean we can't be fairly sure, if the difference is significant enough, but it often isn't.

This one, for me, is clear enough that I'd have been confident enough to bet on it.

Let's take that Parker version, then...

Sure, Hrgovic wouldn't have gotten knocked down, but neither would Whyte.

And while Whyte struggled with the pace towards the end, Hrgovic struggles with stamina - odds are Whyte would've been the one comfortably racking up rounds against a tired opponent.

That Parker would've won the decision against Hrgovic almost every time... And take the KD's out and Whyte and Parker were pretty evenly matched on the cards - so captain obvious conclusion ought to be that Whyte would've been very likely to win on cards against Hrgovic, too... And realistically, he would - Hrgovic is tidy and accurate, but he's also not that hard to hit and his gas tank is awful.

That's the thing, you start changing significant factors in how they actually performed and all bets are off - it's really hypothetical now...

Is it possible that Hrgovic would've beaten a clean Whyte? Sure, but he'd have been so likely to lose to PED Whyte that it's still an open question, IMHO...

You can pick different versions of each, or different altitudes, or make one sleep-deprived, or... How hypothetical do you want to get? Or do we just compare how they actually perform/ed in the ring?

 

Its why its a good step up for Itauma - Hrgovic is still in his prime. I wonder if Itauma will try and do anything new tactically, such as try take the fight long - tire Hrgovic out and finish the job late. Or just snipe it out quickly and get it out of the way fast.

If you go back to when Hrgovic fought Dubois and Joyce, whom both Dubois (slugger) and Joyce (swarmer) don’t have a too dissimilar style to Whyte (both slugger/swarmer). And Hrgovic put up (IMO) a respectable enough showing in both fights. So, Hrgovic against prime Whyte would have been an intriguing fight.

 

I thought Whyte was as mediocre as they come when he was an up-coming prospect. He suffered a doping suspension, came back to build a record then he got KTFOd by Joshua who was also a prospect and then as a baby contender, he got a lucky decision against Chisora so I thought he proved me right. This is what I posted about him and Hrgovic when Hrgo was a brand new pro with 1-0 record:

https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/whytehrgovic.596164/#post-18843245

And then he magically started to get better. Put Chisora and Lucas Browne to sleep, dropped Parker and eeked out a decision, beat Oscar Rivas and showed good composure in doing so. Only for us to find out that he went into the Rivas fight with a positive test for the traces of an anabolic steroid. Then he goes quiet for 6 months, comes back being supposedly cleared, struggles with Mariusz Wach, goes 1-1 with 40 something Povetkin, Fury toyes with him in one of his easier fights, after that he gets a questionable decision against Jermaine Franklin, and then tests positive again.

Aside from everything, Whyte always looked dog**** against tall HWs. I think, as long as there's strict drug testing, Hrgovic beats Whyte pretty decisively prime vs prime and is the more formidable heavyweight. Whyte has the better career, but that's largely thanks to the great promotion by Hearn and incompetence of anti-doping agencies.

 

Good post - i've never rated Whyte that highly, and in 10 fights between them across their careers I'd take Hrgo 7-3 or 6-4.

 

That was a really interesting post with a lot of good points and observations. I think you might be right, much as I don't rate Hrgovic there is no denying that chin and if Zhang couldn't get him out of there I don't see Whyte doing it.

Maybe Whyte wins on a UK card? Otherwise I'd pick Hrgovic in a competitive UD in their primes.

 

Check out his fights with Helenius and Wach. Whyte looks absolute dog **** against taller opponents. As long as there’s strict drug testing (always be sure to put this asterisk in a fantasy match up involving Whyte), Hrgovic wins.

 

Hrgovic has every chance of putting Whyte down
Rivas did and the ref didn't bother counting it

When Whyte was Hearns number 2 HW he got ridiculous biased treatment

 

Great post

 

Even a prime PED Whyte loses by the 10th(on neutral ground)