Hrgovic or Joyce, who showed better defense and more courage against Zhang?

Lol
Maybe fact that one of them win with Zhang (Hrgovic) on points and survive chinese bomb 12 rounds and other lost before last bells 2 times?

 

Footwork and speed - Hrgovic was able to get out of Zhang's punching lines after getting hit/hurt, unlike Joyce.

 

a) Hrgovic was dynamic, decisive, and precise enough to consistently lead the action, score points, and get out to avoid 50/50 fire exchange.

b) Hrgovic had good enough movement and ring gemoetry to control terms of engagement and dictate pace of the fight. There were rounds where Zhang pressed on the front foot and found Filip, but it was an energy-consuming and often ineffective endeavour which took its toll in the later rounds where Hrgovic was more or less sweeping rounds against an exhausted Zhang.

c) Hrgovic had an infinitely better, more educated long guard. Well-schooled on the various functions of the lead hand, punching aside, and clearly adept at hand fighting.

d) Angles, rolling punches.

e) Hrgovic was mourning, had to get up from a rabbit punch slip knockdown in the first round (that he was winning) and still pushed through. Never managed to score it for Zhilei. Both Canelo-Bivol and Hrgovic-Zhang are great examples on how you fight low-output, high-impact counterpuncher: you dictate the terms of engagement through movement whilst scoring with dynamic leads; you disarm the counterpunching opportunities with hand-traps, frames, and a flow of educated feints. Counterpunchers, especially ones like Zhang and 168 Alvarez, thrive on predictability and patterns. By dictating how often an opportunity for engagement is present in a round, and providing ample stimuli for him to ponder about before unloading counterpunches, you can either take rounds, or force him to lead which is a win-win situation.