Filip Hrgovic is far too professional to overlook the threat posed by Daniel Dubois, but it would be fair to say that the unbeaten Croatian is supremely confident of beating the Londoner when they meet on June 1.
It has emerged that Hrgovic, 17-0 (14 KOs), got the better of a young Dubois during a couple of sparring sessions. Despite a promise from the 26-year-old Dubois to put his opponent to sleep in Saudi Arabia, Hrgovic – who has taken to calling his rival “Big Duck” after a clumsy cartoon character he used to watch as a child – hasn’t seen anything to suggest things will be different when the pair swap punches for real.
“He’s just a little baby for me,” Hrgovic told Queensberry. “He’s not going to put me to sleep. I’ve fought much bigger punchers and they haven’t put me to sleep. He’s not going to put me to sleep; I’m going to destroy him. He’s not mature enough for me.
“When you see him, it’s like you’ve taken a kid from the parents and put him in the middle of some big shopping mall, and the kid is looking, like, ‘Where are my parents?’ That’s the way I see him. He looks like he’s lost and like he doesn’t know where he needs to go. He’s like a baby.”
If Hrgovic is brimming with confidence after those sparring sessions, Dubois (20-2, 19 KOs) and his backers have gained belief from the way he seemed to visibly overcome his mental demons during his stoppage victory over Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller last December.
After taking a knee due to the pain of a badly damaged eye socket in his loss to Joe Joyce and then allowing himself to be counted out during his fight with unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk, Dubois dug in and battled through fatigue during his fight with Miller.
Hrgovic hasn’t bought into the propaganda.
“You guys from Great Britain, you make everything big. You made Joshua’s win against f*****g [Francis] Ngnanou a big win,” he said. “You made Joshua against [Robert] Helenius a blockbuster, so you made Dubois’ win against ‘Big Baby’ like a huge win. It’s not a huge win, man. It’s a normal win.”
And if Dubois does beat Hrgovic?
“That will be a huge win, yeah. If he beats me, head down to him. Then I admit that he’s a good – great – fighter. If he beats me, I’ll retire, man.”
Unsurprisingly, Hrgovic isn’t looking for a rocking chair or searching for golf clubs to join.
Rumors abound about a massive card taking place at London’s Wembley Stadium in September. Resurgent two-time unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua has recently been making noise about staging his return to action on that show.
On May 18, Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk will meet for the undisputed heavyweight title. The pair are tied into a rematch regardless of the outcome, meaning that the ultra-strict IBF will require the winner to quickly vacate his title so that his mandatory challenger – Hrgovic – can get his long-awaited shot.
Although Saudi Arabia does seem to be the place where desire can trump obligation on a whim, Hrgovic and Dubois are expected to fight for the IBF title, with the winner putting himself in prime position to fight Joshua while Fury and Usyk settle their business.
“I’ll smash Dubois and then, in September, I’ll come to Wembley to fight Joshua. Do you remember when the Croatian football team came to Wembley and smashed your national team?” said Hrgovic referencing the Croatian national team’s 3-2 victory over England in a World Cup qualifier back in 2007.
“I’m going to do that again. I’ll come to Wembley in front of 80,000 British people and I’m going to smash Joshua. That’s my plan, Fury – but first I need to take care of ‘Big Duck’.”
