IBF heavyweight champion Filip Hrgovic is choosing Tyson Fury to defeat Anthony Joshua in their British heavyweight mega-fight on Dec. 11.
“I think Fury [wins], based on Joshua’s last performance,” Hrgovic informed Uncrowned’s “The Ariel Helwani Show” on Wednesday. “You saw that [Joshua] was fighting a journeyman and he went down in 10 seconds from such a soft punch. It was crazy. I couldn’t believe what I saw. I think he’s done.
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“He should not be combating anymore. But he needs to do, of course, one more combat. I think he’s going to make a large quantity of money, and he’s doing it because of that, but I think he should not be combating anymore.
“When I saw that last fight, I felt sorry for him,” Hrgovic added, “because [for] the fight, he said he shut all his businesses to focus on boxing. He changed his coach for the 20th time. He started to work with [Oleksandr] Usyk’s team. He did everything he could do. And then he comes to the fight with a journeyman and he goes down in 10 seconds.”
Joshua was floored twice by the unheralded Kristian Prenga in July, but he recovered to knock Prenga out in a two-round firefight in Riyadh. Now 37 years previous, “AJ” has not crushed a heavyweight contender at the world degree in nearly three years.
Since his fifth-round knockout defeat to Daniel Dubois in September 2024, Joshua has had just two fights — first against Jake Paul last December, and second against Prenga this summer season. The Brit has been battling accidents and the emotional and bodily affect from a devastating car crash that took the lives of two of his closest pals.
“Yeah, [he should never fight again] based on how he looked in his last fight,” Hrgovic said. “It was a disaster, and he’s just not there. In boxing, you come to the point where — it’s not football, it’s not basketball, it’s not soccer; in boxing, you come to the point where you can’t fight anymore.
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“It’s a harmful sport. It’s a conflict. And I think you come to a level where you can’t combat anymore. You can’t mess around with boxing.”
Whatever happens between Joshua and Fury on Dec. 11 — which could see the winner crowned as WBA (Super) heavyweight champion — the Croatian does not expect either man to look his way for a unification bout, believing both are past their primes.
“I do not think [the Joshua-Fury winner wants to fight me],” Hrgovic said.
“I would be completely satisfied that I’m incorrect, but I do not think so.”
Hrgovic (21-1, 16 KOs) didn’t have much positive to say about his rival champions in the division either. The IBF king referred to the other three titleholders — Daniel Dubois (WBO), Agit Kabayel (WBC) and Murat Gassiev (WBA) — as “pretend champions.”
“I really feel they’re all pretend champions proper now. Dubois is a pretend champion because he beat pretend champion, Fabio Wardley,” Hrgovic explained. “Fabio Wardley should not have won against [Joseph] Parker. He was dropping the combat, and I think it was a massive theft. When you beat a pretend champion, you’re a pretend champion as nicely.
“Agit Kabayel received his belt without fighting. I also think he’s a fake champion. And this Murat Gassiev is also a fake champion. He beat nobody and received his belt without fighting.”
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Dubois rose off the ground to stop Wardley in Round 11 of a Fight of the Year contender in May to win the WBO heavyweight belt. The pair fought their anticipated rematch this previous Saturday in London — but this time there wasn’t much drama.
Dubois made straightforward work of Wardley, knocking him down within 17 seconds, hurting him quite a few instances, and finally ending him in Round 2.
Many believe Wardley’s punch resistance is gone at the prime degree because of the cumulative punishment he absorbed during his profession, and thus he should call it a day.
Similar observations were made about Joe Joyce after back-to-back defeats at the fingers of Zhilei Zhang — and he has seemed a shell of himself ever since, dropping three of his 4 fights.
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“Look, he made a bunch of money,” Hrgovic said of Wardley. “He made a miracle by becoming a world champion without an amateur career. He made a bunch of money, and he had a lot of wars — every fight of his is a war. I think he should retire.
“He would not have that ability degree. He depends on his coronary heart, chin and sturdiness. Because he would not have that ability degree, every combat [of his] is going to be a conflict. So I do not know why he would do that anymore. I think he should retire.”
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