They want Hrgovic to lose.

I

If he can't beat the six opponents in front of him he doesn't deserve to be champion. He's coasted on bums long enough.

 

Exactly. If they're going to provide big money they want some value for it.

Fighters can't really say that they want a big payday but not take any risks for it.

 

Exactly - and fighters can't claim to be avoided whilst their profiles are limited and they refuse decent offers to fight guys who draw much more attention... That's not being avoided, that's being an entitled brat.

***** as much as you like about Yank and Brit fighters getting large profiles much more easily - the reality is if their profiles are much higher, they'll draw more and both expect and justify larger cuts.

 

Hrgovic will beat all of them expect Frank, that would be a 50:50 for me.

Anderson is too soft, Dubois gives up when in trouble, Bakole is just a big aim, Kabayel can't hurt him, Miller is just too slow

 

What do you want him to fight de mori again? If he is as good as advertised he should have no problem fighting any of the listed fighters. parker just beat wilder and is now fighting zang. He is an example of having some nuts.

 

Hrgovic has not had it easy for sure, but you're becoming a bit paranoid.

They want to keep Hrgovic on the boil for a future big fight, while keeping him away from a title fight for now. They aren't trying to trip him, they even put a walking punching bag in as an option (Miller) in case Hrgovic wants to take zero risk.

Actually, Hrgovic beats all 6 quite easily IMHO, as long as he comes in his best shape.

Hrgovic has kept asking for the Bakole fight so obviously he's confident (and personally i think the people who think Bakole has a chance to upset are way out, Bakole was never elite and hasn't looked good recently).

Sanchez, Anderson, Dubois, Kabayel are all decent but you'd have to highly favour Hrgovic still.

 

If he would lose to all six he wouldnt be any kind of champions anyway

 

Yes, I think it also comes down to reality. Fury [and Wilder before him] has stalled the HW divsion and there's every chance he's going to mess it around for some time to come. Hrgovic can either be cautious and hope for things to fall his way, or he can make the absolute most of the window of opportunity the Saudi's have opened to make a statement and force the issue.

He may as well take money on the table when it's there. How many times have we seen fighters pass up opportunities only to come up against dead ends and brick walls afterwards. I think about Luis Ortiz who for whatever reason let the Ustinov fight pass by, and turned down an AJ fight.

Without some coherent structure in place in pro-boxing, anyone outside of the established 'stars' needs to make statement wins to increase their leverage. If Anderson and Dubois are there for good money, take it. As you said, they're really the kinds of opposition that anyone at the very top tier should be able to see off.

 

The first heavyweight to beat Hrgovic (please ignore the comments about Zhang) will definitely benefit greatly from that on the ring magazine list.

 

Depends when he finally finds his balls to fight them

And before you say he had the stones to fight Zhang...
Zhang was a relative nobody when Hrgovic fought him - Olympic silver, but zero wins as a pro against anyone remotely respectable at that point (Rudenko and Vargas being barely above jobber level)... Even Yoka was a more serious figure at that point - he'd just lost to Bakole, but wins over Hammer and Duhaupas were levels beyond anything Zhang had done.

Hrgovic needs to get busy and accept fights with some serious guys before he starts getting this level of hype.

 

If he wants to stay at home at sit on his IBF mandatory position then he is free to do so; if he wants a Saudi Arabian payday in the meantime then at least he can fight someone half competitive to justify it.