Filip Hrgovic vs prime Deontay Wilder

There was nothing "B class" about Wilder's height, reach, athleticism, determination, or his devastating punching power.

Wilder became champion and had 10 title defenses. Hrgovic became champion less than a week ago. Wilder has more experience, hits harder, has a better jab, is faster, and is arguably just as tough. He's also a better finisher than Hrgovic.

Absolutely no one was talking about Hrgovic being a huge deal until the Moses fight, which is why I correctly said "recency bias" lol.

Wilder is a terrible matchup for Hrgovic who has very leaky defense and doesn't move his head enough. Unless Hrgovic manages to drag Wilder into deep waters with sufficient body shots/high volume and avoids getting blasted out by a nuclear right hand, Wilder would be favored to win. Hrgovic isn't some genius technician, out boxer, or counter punched ans he certainly isn't beating Wilder in a slug fest.

 

As far as the opponents they beat to become champion, Bermane Stiverne was literally more proven than Itauma….

Theres a conversation people don’t want to have….

 

Literally.

Obviously Moses was more talented than Stiverne, but in terms of pedigree, who exactly did Moses beat to be considered world class? Moses beat an old Dillian Whyte who showed up for a pay check, the "meh" Jermain Franklin, ancient Wach (who always sucked) and...uh...help me out here.

 

Itauma was also much faster than him, lol.

 

Your point? Hrgovic wasn't exactly some defensive wizard or a speed demon in his other fights either.

 

Wilder KO. Hrgovich lacks the speed, footwork and punching angles to stop Wilder I think.

Good fight tho. Could go either way

 

The way to beat Wilder is to force him on backfoot constantly pressuring him and making him uncomfortable.

So Wilder can't get set to use his range and timing to unleash that right hand.

Now I'm not a big fan of Wilder but I don't agree with the flavour of the month mentality that Hrgovic is suddenly a big favourite over a prime Wilder.

Say what you want about Wilder but his right hand was lethal and he had a decent jab and some athletism.

Hrgovic doesn't throw alot of punches and he's not really one to pressure an opponent to really force Wilder on the backfoot round after round.

And whilst Hrgovic has a good chin I'm not sure he would be able to constantly eat flush right hands from Wilder with no effect.

Hrgovic doesn't have a good defence and he stands straight up which is perfect for Wilder to get range and leverage into that right hand.

No real prediction here but I wouldn't make Hrgovic an automatic favourite let's put it that way.

 

Iceing Arreola when he did and how he did is more impressive than anything Itauma has done up to this point. The “eye test” is good and all, but at the end of the day, it is completely subjective and surface level, and results speak louder.

 

Perhaps not... And there was nothing B class about his heart, either.

His chin on the other hand, was more like B class, and his ring IQ and fundamentals not even that.


In a way that's what makes this an interesting hypothetical...

Wilder had some strong attributes and some very poor ones - add it all together and you'd always have a punchers chance, but with definite limits.
Hrgovic is much more of a flat line - chin and gas tank aside (for different reasons) he's pretty average in most areas.

That means there's areas you can see Wilder was noticeably better, despite his limitations, and others where he's obviously inferior despite his upsides.

And depending on how you'd expect it to go and what you're focused on, you could see multiple ways it could go down... Which makes it a far more interesting hypothetical than the usual "overhyped fighter just had an okay win, would he beat Foreman" cack we often get on here.

 

Anybody saying Hrgovic is not a skilled fighter DKSAB. He is upright and boxes as his size

There was everything king of the B-class about defending against the likes of Szpilka (who made him look dumb in there in spurts), Molina (who actually had Wilder hurt on chicken legs), Arreola, Duhaupas (against which he got an almost gift stoppage), Washington, after winning WBC belt on Stiverne no less. His greatest claim to legitimacy after 3 years was Luis Ortiz. A quality, top ranked fighter whose best win nonetheless was probably Jennings, and who was aged, had suspicious chin, stamina, and boxed at a pace, giving Wilder time to land the right hand while he was losing rounds and almost got stopped, infamously getting extra time in-between rounds to recover. Oh, Ortiz went nowhere with his career, and has absolutely no notable win to speak of, bar giving a solid fights to some solid fighters (read Andy Ruiz.) Then of course the generous Fury draw.

The attributes you claim made Wilder good are mostly a puff piece. Height and reach, as if heavyweight division wasn't full of rangy fighters, or as if being a shorter, explosive combinations fighter wasn't an attribute when the rangier fighter can't keep you at a distance. Determination? Majority of top fighters are determined. Hell, majority of professional fighters require grit that comes with the job. But I agree that Wilder doesn't know where to quit. He knows how to get knocked the **** out by Fury, Zhang, how to get rocked by Molina and Ortiz, and how to shell up and lose 12-0 against Parker. He is also determined enough to claim foul and come up with conspiracy theories in each of those fights. Yeah, I'll give Wilder that. He has self-belief.

Wilder has an explosive punching power, and solid accuracy with his right hand and an alright jab. Period. Branding him as athletic is already a stretch, because he has awful balance, poor head and upper body movement, isn't particularly fast-twitch bar striking power, has okay reaction time, isn't particularly strong for the heavyweight division, and is prone to plodding. Just reaching from explosive puncher to athletic fighter, which is absolutely not the same.

Hrgovic has a good jab, and an educated lead hand when it comes to hand-fighting, leverage guards, feints and all --- far more technical despite not looking particularly nimble due to his size. He has less power in his cross, but it's accurate (tagged Dubois at will), more versatile, and he has a very underrated cross downstairs (see the Zhang, Itauma fights.) Filip puts combinations together much better, diffuses counters better, manipulates lead-react dynamics better, has infinitely better movement around the ring when he wants to, has infinitely better distance management when pressed and knows how to punch with or circle around to stop his opponent from setting (and actually score in-between, while Wilder is simply bullied around the ring.) Oh yeah, and he actually has better defense on top of being certified granite when he actually gets leaky (yes, I agree, he does). Zhang shattered Joyce and he couldn't come close to doing that against far less experienced Filip.

Zhang is a direct comparison, and Hrgovic in his first top-level bout displayed infinitely more craft (while cut and after a slip/pull knockdown in a round he was comfortably winning) against a younger Zhang, while Wilder was bullied and highlight reel KO'ed. I cannot believe people can watch Molina and Ortiz hurt Wilder badly and think Hrgovic won't hurt him downstairs.

 

This is very true... And it's not saying much.

Hrgovic literally won a belt beating a kid who hasn't even beaten a gatekeeper who's not shot to bits yet and suddenly he's the amazing...

Beat a hypejob, become a hypejob. Same old story.

 

100%, that's basically my point.

 

Thanks for the reply Bubbles. I disagreed with the Hrgovic criticism for year while acknowledging his shortcomings in conditioning, focus, and perhaps training camps. I think he is clearly a very, very solid technical fighter who won't look flashy because of his size. At the same time he displayed a strong boxing when in the groove, and against murderous punchers sometimes fight after bout.

 

Thought about this

Hrgovic

Styles make fights and I think he edges a decision

Interesting matchup

 

Equally Zhang either wins by KO or he loses... Jerry Forrest saw the final bell, and got a draw out of Zhang.

Ortiz, for all the OTT hype, clearly hit a lot harder than Hrgovic...