Joyce Vs. Hrgovic: A Career-Defining Fight

Joe Joyce faces Filip Hrgovic this weekend, as boxing insiders gave their view on the upcoming clash. 

Joyce will face the Croatian after his initial opponent, Dillian Whyte, withdrew with a hand injury. Joyce’s career is potentially on the line, having suffered three defeats in his last four fights. He came out second best to Derek Chisora in his previous fight, getting dropped on his way to a unanimous decision loss. His other defeats during that streak were two losses against Zhilei Zhang.

Hrgovic was stopped in his last bout by Daniel Dubois, who was later upgraded to a full IBF Heavyweight Champion. That was Hrgovic’s first loss, which was a massive setback with many having tipped him to become a future world champion. Hrgovic knows a win puts him back in the conversation for the other big fights. Here is how boxing insiders saw the fight playing out. 

Joyce Vs. Hrgovic

“I think Hrgovic can win it, he’s got a good style, he’s had the time to rebuild so I’m looking forward to it. It’s interesting, is Joe going to come in and maul him? I’m looking forward to it to see what Hrgovic is like now. i heard and interview the other day where he said he’s ready and means business, so we’ll see,” Hrgovic said 

“Hrgovic just because he lost to Dubois doesn’t mean he’s not a good fighter, he is good. He’s on a good run as well. He’s going to want to get back in the mix so again that’s a good fight. It’s hard hard to pick a winner out of those two, if Hrgovic has been given the time to have a full camp.

“I can’t remember what date the fight is and how well prepared he is but the way boxing is now you don’t seem to get a full camp anyway. It’s so hard because you know, Joyce is not on the best run and Hrgovic is coming off a loss. I didn’t think he looked good against Demsey Mckean. I was at that fight, so I don’t know, I think it’s a 50/50,” Xavier Miller

“It’s a very tough fight but Hrgovic is in the last chance saloon too and that’s why this is such a good fight. You could see in the first few rounds against Daniel that Hrgovic was very accurate with his punching so Joe has to slip a few of them, let’s see if he can do that. But it was also a hard ending in that fight for Hrgovic too so let’s see how he comes back from that here,” Frank Warren stated

Full Card

Joe Joyce vs. Filip Hrgovic, 10 rounds, heavyweights

Jack Rafferty vs. Cory O’Regan, 12 rounds, junior welterweights

David Adeleye vs. Jeamie Tshikeva, 10 rounds, for the vacant British heavyweight title

Juergen Uldedaj vs. Gerardo Mellado, 10 rounds, cruiserweights

Khaleel Majid vs. Alex Murphy, 10 rounds, junior welterweights

Royston Barney-Smith vs. Cesar Ignacio Paredes, 8 rounds, junior lightweights

Mark Chamberlain vs. Miguel Angel Scaringi, 8 rounds, junior welterweights

Nelson Birchall vs. Rodrigo Matias Areco, 6 rounds, featherweights

Alfie Middlemiss vs. Alexander Morales, 4 rounds, featherweights

Delicious Orie vs. Milos Veletic, 4 rounds, heavyweights

Ramtin Musah vs. Robbie Chapman, 4 rounds, super middleweights