Joyce to fight Hrgovic now instead of Whyte

I liked the whyte fight for joyce but hrgovic might have too much for him at this point. Dont know man if you loose to chisora what are your ambitions anyway now?! Joyce downfall needs to be studied he was on the cusp to achieve everything and with the right fights he probably would have gone all the way thats for certain for me.

 

Odds are Hrgovic hasn't set foot in a gym since the day of his last fight.

 

He trains regularly, maybe he didn't train with a stronger intensity because he didn't expect to fight soon...

 

I agree, both of them noticeably regressed in the defensive part, they were more mobile but they were also quite a bit lighter, I'm interested in what the fight will be like now that they are much heavier and slower...

 

For me it's more of a story of how overblown a hype narrative can get - and how even fighters with massive, glaring flaws can get hyped to a ridiculous degree (Joyce is far from alone in this).

I don't honestly think he was ever on the cusp of achieving anything major... His complete lack of defensive skills and glacial movement were always going to make that unlikely.


Joyce's career is an interesting one because he started late and went through the levels at a good rate, beating a couple of gatekeepers (Jennings, Takam) along the way, along with a very promising prospect (Dubois, which has aged well for Joe) and a legit contender in Parker (albeit not Parker fighting at his best or playing to his strengths)...

Basically, Joyce's resume flatters him a lot. It's not that he's bad (he's not), but he did have some slices of luck in fighting certain guys at precisely the right moment.

The biggest problem, though, was actually a lack of luck in one sense (or poor planning, take your pick) in that he stepped up to pro far too late to really be able to get to the top - even without the brutal losses to Zhang, his days were always numbered.

 

Both are B level fighters, for now I just hope for a good fight and after that we will see what will happen in the future of their careers...

 

So to put the context into context, as it were...

Of the IBF top 5 at the time:
1 was Hrgovic himself
1 was a vacant spot

Of the 3 remaining...
One was Joshua with an Usyk rematch booked already (and obviously when you've got shots at the champ, shots at a mando position are completely ****ing irrelevant).

The only ones left were Luis Ortiz at 42 years old (at least), fresh off of struggling with Charles Martin, and Tony Yoka who hadn't stepped up beyond Hammer by that point (and really had no business being ranked up there) and who would shortly after get beaten by durable gatekeeper Bakole.


Beyond the 5...
- Joyce was already on a good run, I suppose that could've been made.
- Kabayel was considered a joke at that point in time (and was fresh off the back of such astonishing wins as Rudenko, Lazaridis and Kevin Johnson).
- Gassiev hadn't long moved up to heavy and hadn't even fought a gatekeeper at the weight at that point.
- Ruiz was still in shame and lacking motivation, with only one fight (Areola) since losing his rematch with Joshua.

You can get way down that list with obvious reasons as to why they might not be wanting to prioritise hunting a mandatory that wouldn't get exercised for quite some time (because the Joshua rematch was coming and then unification was clearly going to be the priority).


The one explanation that doesn't make sense, to me, is everyone was too scared to fight the guy... I suspect it's a combination of the mandatory not being worth as much at that immediate moment and Hrgovic not providing enough draw for the money to make sense.

 

Hrgovic is not a scary guy, he is just unprofitable because of the small market in Croatia, if his managers weren't such misers, maybe he would have a better career...

 

Pretty much, yes.

If he was British he'd have had more attention/draw from the start (as former Olympians do, here)...

But he's not - and that means you've got to MAKE that profile.

Whether it's him or his managers to blame, realistically they probably didn't put him in anywhere near enough fights and probably asked way too much money for him to fight.

 

Today in boxing, it is necessary to be active on social media in order for the fan base to grow, and Hrgovic is not that type, and that is another of his big problems...

 

Wow! after watching this clip I was stunned at just how far he has fallen, this is literally a loser leave town match. If Hrgovic has a pulse he should take a UD.

 

I think Hrgovic wins on points

 

Ironically, whilst being a good fight for fans - this is an awful fight for both competitors.

The loser finds themselves with nowhere to go, so it is high stakes for both - and both are nightmare matchups for each other.

Hrgovic can punch and is accurate and punches in combination well. So Joyce will eat a lot of shots (admittedly, not as hard as shots from Zhang, but still…)

And Joyce is relentless and sets a high pace with steady heavy output. Which is an issue for Hrgovic.

it’s stylistically the sort of fight each competitor would normally avoid, but adding in short notice and the “loser leaves town” stakes - it seems crazy for them both to risk.

 

Is Joyce definitely fighting Hrgovic ?

Not on boxrec yet and heard nothing from Hrgovic (although he's usually very quiet anyway)

 

There was a time that I would have heavily favoured Joyce but now I am not so sure.

Joyce in his last 3 fights came in above 280lbs and looked terrible each time. I'm not sure if he really has the belief anymore. Getting stopped by Zhang seems to have broken him, or he simply got old.

If Joyce comes in, in decent shape, around 270lbs or below then I think he can win as long as he can take Hrgovic's power. He ate Hrgovic's best shots in WSB like they were nothing, so I guess we'll see if his chin is truly cracked. If Hrgovic can hurt him than I see Hrgovic stopping him with his accurate right hands but if again Joyce is unfazed by Hrgovic's power then I see Joyce setting too high and pace and grinding Hrgovic down and stopping him around the 8th round or so.