If AJ Fights Hrgovic August 12th, Does he Beat Him?

I’ve legit never seen McKean. What kinda chance does he have with Hrgovic?

 

Surprised so many people think Joshua would actually beat Hrgovic on short notice, when clearly Hearn and Joshua himself don’t believe so.

If they did, they would have mentioned Hrgovic as a possible replacement, but they haven’t, it’s just the likes of Washington and Chisora.

Why? Because Hrgovic beats Joshua, and Hearn knows this, which is why Hrgovic won’t get the fight.

 

To play Devil's advocate, if Hearn believed Hrgovic had a 49% chance to Joshua's 51%, he surely wouldn't make the fight. Same for 40%, 30%, probably even 20%.

But I don't doubt that Hrgovic is considered far too dangerous to seriously offer the fight to.

 

Being realistic - there is nothing in Hrgovic’s resume to say with any confidence that you would bet on him to beat Joshua. Joshua has fought numerous contenders and stylistically different fighters and has only lost to Usyk - whom everyone on this board is rightfully very high on - and Ruiz, which he went on to avenge.

not saying Hrgovic couldn’t beat him - but the AJ hate is making a lot of people underrate him with his strong resume and overrate Hrgovic, who has realistically only fought one contender and arguably lost.

 

Very close fight, unlike the original main event.

 

I still think AJ's confidence is shattered and Hrgovic proved his chin and heart against Zhang. Hrgovic would be a great replacement but he's too high-risk for Joshua. Hrgovic is probably his toughest opponent who is in the running to be the replacement opponent.

I do believe Hrgovic could beat AJ and I think it would be a competitive fight. It's also why it won't happen.

 

I think AJ beats any heavyweight in the world apart from Fury and Usyk. Wilder is 50/50.

He’s an experienced top-level fighter with a better resume that pretty much everyone else in the division. Losing to Usyk twice on points doesn’t change that.

 

aj is not a top 10 fighter

 

That is subjective. That’s why they fight the fights - and he has earned his position, like it or not. Hrgovic - as good as he may be - has not done the same yet.

 

You made a fair case but also shaded every point to make the case for AJ.

I mean you made 0-2 vs Usyk and 1-1 vs Ruiz (w/ fatso getting the lone stoppage) almost sound positive Filip won a narrow decision vs. ZZ who's stock has rightly risen after stopping JJ. Also, since this has come up, some people take the death of a close family member harder than others.
At any rate I think AJ vs. Filip is a pick 'em fight.

 

The only fight of his I've seen is Vs Zhang and he was far from impressive. Based on that I'd expect a fairly easy AJ win.

 

To be fair - Usyk is far more highly rated and proven than Zhang. And I like Zhang.
The Ruiz loss is mentioned to show that Joshua has shown the ability to adapt and overcome a foe that previously defeated him - many on here were saying it was a foolish endeavour driven by pride and that he would never beat Ruiz in the rematch.
I’m not necessarily taking a position on who would win - I think it would be a good fight - but so many are picking Hrgovic based on a metric that they are unfairly applying to one fighter and overlooking in the other. That’s all.

 

In June 2019, you could say the exact same thing about Andy Ruiz's chances of beating Joshua. Yet Ruiz TKO7'd him.

Your resume can't fight for you. Boxing matches are won in the ring, not on paper.

 

no he wasn't, vitali dropped out of a fight to take this on short notice. it was the only way he would have ever gotten a shot.

 

Fair enough. I wasn't trying to wind you up and you took it the right way. I did think it was a bit funny how you presented AJs 3 losses.

For the record, as I'm typing this, AJ has a narrow lead in the voting. Appears we're in general agreement that it should be a good, competitive bout.