Filip Hrgovic (18-1, 14 KOs) needed a second wind to come on strong down the stretch to defeat the motivated Joe ‘The Juggernaut’ Joyce (16-4, 15 KOs) by a 10-round unanimous decision in a heavyweight contest at the Co-Op Live Arena in Manchester, England.
Filip’s shots that normally would KO most opponents had no effect on Joyce, who took them well and kept coming forward, landing his slow punches to the body and head. Luckily for Hrgovic, Joyce, 39, was missing with many of his shots. The ones that he did land gave Hrgovic plenty of trouble.
The scores
– 97-93
– 96-95
– 98-92
Hrgovic’s Fatigue
In the seventh, Joyce staggered Hrgovic with a head-snapping right hand. At the end of the round, Hrgovic looked like he was feeling sorry for himself in his corner. He was the picture of defeat, appearing exhausted and depressed.
Interestingly, Joyce failed to take advantage of Filip’s state in the eighth round, as he looked hesitant to throw power shots, pawing with his jab. This allowed Hrgovic to come back into the fight and control the final three rounds.
Hrgovic sustained cuts over each eye from the heavy shots that Joyce was landing, and his corner did an excellent job of stopping the blood.
Joyce will probably kick himself for not doing more in the second half of the contest because he looked like he could have won. Hrgovic was there to be beaten due to his exhaustion and the way he was responding to the nonstop pressure. He was physically breaking like we saw in his previous fight against Daniel Dubois.
It’s hard to see this as much of a victory for Hrgovic because he looked fragile and not nearly impressive. The way Hrgovic performed, he’d be no match for many of the contenders in the top five.
Rabbit Punches
Obviously, his promoters are going to maneuver him around the dangerous fighters to try and get him a title shot without getting beaten, but it’s going to be tough to do. He throws too many illegal rabbit punches for any of the champions to give him a title shot. He’ll likely lose if Hrgovic takes on one of the talented contenders in a title eliminator. Hrgovic is an OLD 32, more like 38, with the way he fought tonight.
On the subject of rabbit punches. Hrgovic got away with landing repeated shots behind the head of Joyce, and despite three warnings, he was never docked points. I lost count of the number of rabbit punches after seeing 15 instances of shots. He was in fine form with those punches tonight.
