Joyce to fight Hrgovic now instead of Whyte

Hrgovic SHOULD come through this with the win but this will be very telling of how dedicated he really is.

 

Promising prospect, yes.

Avoided is far less clear... It looked to me more like he was either avoiding fights himself (protecting his, IMHO dubious, mandatory positioning) or pricing himself as a top contender and making it impossible to get fights made (because promising or not, he's never had much draw at all, nor does he have much pedigree as a pro).

Agreed he's looked nothing like his apparent potential... Then again, that does sometimes (often, if we're honest) start happening as prospects get progressed up through the levels - better opponents show the limitations.

Not necessarily... I would say Parker's level and motivation dropped after Joshua beat him, but he's climbed right back up to a better level and is now one of the top guys.

It depends if he lives the life or just trains for specific fights.

Realistically, his gas tank suggests the latter.

I don't think it's fair to the real contenders to say Hrgovic was ever one, even fringe - he never proved that.

Whether he'll ever get there is questionable, but it always was.

Agreed though, I think Joyce is ready for the fork - he's done.

 

Remember why he fought relatively unknown Zhang in August 2022? There were like 5 IBF rated heavyweights that didn't want to fight him for the mandatory spot.

 

Its a better fight tbf. More of an upside for Joyce if he wins. Nobody cares about or rates Shyte anymore.

 

Better fight imo. I think Fil by KO. H's got something to prove and might be able to prove it. Joyce, I've given up on turning it around. Basically the UK's Charles Martin. Big slow guy with moderate power, hands, and feet at best.

 

A has been versus a never was. Whoever loses should quit boxing and get a day job.

 

Fair assessment I still think Hrgovic will be too much. I envision a late TKO

 

I can't remember the last time I cared so little about who would win and who would lose.

 

Interesting matchmaking. I guess the promoter is asking hrgovic a question here whilst motivating him with an old opponent from the amateurs.

With joyce coming forward all the time and bringing the pressure we will both see if hrogivic wants it and has the gas tank. We will see if he mentally checks out. And if he doesn't he might be ready to attack the top again. All that while being the betting favorite. I would say chapeau to the matchmaking. If you are hrgovic you can finally thank your promoter.

 

The fight is only a month from now. People have been posting training footage of Hrgovic here lately so maybe he is in decent shape already and now he can just go sparring. Joyce was probably already into training. It really all depends on what shape they show up in. If Hrgovic can look dominant he will be right back into the Top 6. If he he loses he is out of the Top 10.

 

Great fight. One of my "dream list fight" in last time.
As I said before. Hrgovic is quicker and more dinamic than Joyce. Also he probably got even better chin (special now when Joe is after 2 KO loss) and as younger he probably is closer to his prime.
He should be able to win UD with Joe at least.

He just must remeber that Joe is hard to rock and better dont try KO him early. Dont looking for KO soo much because its not show up then.

All depends how Filip right hand will affect Big Joe. If he eat all without big problem as Dubois (was big surprise for me) it will be long hard fight for Filip but he should win this maybe after some trouble moments.
Only advantage Joe got is stamina but I dont think in this stage of carrer he will force Filip soo much to make him exosted.

Filip lost to Dubois because 3 reasons.
1. He was too confident in his mind because of sparring story and Daniel problems in some of his fights. He probably think he will destroy him easy and force it too much in first rounds.
2. Reffery let Dubois do whatever he want. More than 20 headbutts cost Hrgovic lot of health.
3. Filip waste lot of time not upgrade his level. Poor opposition, waiting years for opportunity and dont improve. After Molina fight he should collected much more needed expirence.

For me if Hrgovic got good mental he should win this in pretty good fashion. But fight will be nice to watch. Both got bad defence and prefer offensive style.
Dont think Joyce got power to KO Filip but we must see how Daniel loss affect him

 

The big question is:

"Why?"

The automatic assumption seems to be that it's because he was a bogeyman, so feared that nobody wanted to fight him.

In truth, I don't think this is at all common - even for much fiercer fighters than Hrgovic.


I suspect, more often than not, it's because that bogeyman doesn't want to lose bogeyman status... Or they think they're worth way too much money for how big their draw is.

Considering Zhang had zero wins inside the top 200 at the time he fought Hrgovic, I'd be shocked if having beaten Zhang gave him any genuine fear factor.

 

You need to ask all those guys who declined fighting him. I'm not saying he was a boogeyman or anything, but it was very strange for me at the time, that few fighters didn't want to fight for the IBF mandatory against him.