Filip Hrgovic is willing to get in the ring again with Zhilei Zhang.
Croatia’s Hrgovic defeated China’s Zhang last August by unanimous decision in their 12-round heavyweight bout, but his win was tainted by the fact that many fans and observers felt that it could have been a draw, or even a win in Zhang’s favor.
Now with the 39-year-old Zhang having stopped London’s Joe Joyce inside six rounds last Saturday at the Copper Box Arena in London, Hrgovic is eager to correct the public perception that Zhang somehow deserved to beat him.
Zhang mostly had his way with Joyce, landing left hands at will, which ultimately closed Joyce’s right eye and compelled the referee in charge of the fight to wave off the bout during the sixth round.
“Let’s do a rematch at the end of the year,” Hrgovic told iFL TV. “What about that? I’ll come to Beijing. I’ll beat him in front of one billion Chinese people. What about that? You agree with that?”
Hrgovic, whose father passed away during his training camp for the Zhang fight, believes he will stop Zhang in a return bout.
“Man, look, I swear with my father’s name, and my father passed away, I swear that I’ll go to China and I’ll knock him out,” Hrgovic continued. “On my worst night I beat that guy. On my best night he’s not going past the six rounds.
“It’s not all about me [that can make the rematch happen]. You know I have promoters. You know I have managers. But if you ask me, I’ll go to China and I’ll knock him out.”
Hrgovic adamantly denies that Zhang “beat” him. The Croatian also pointed out that his fight with Zhang was his first outing with new trainer Ronnie Shields.
“There’s no chance he beat me,” Hrgovic said. “You watch the fight again, you count the punches, the points. I throw in that fight more than 700 punches. He throw around 300 punches. So there’s no chance he beat me. I won the fight on all three scorecards. I won by unanimous decision. It was a close fight. I cannot tell you I beat him decisively or it was like a close fight.
But I beat him clearly. I won eight rounds in my head. He won four rounds, he had that knockdown in that first round. I think I beat him clearly. Before that fight my father passed away, a few months before the fight. We were really connected and I had the worst time of my life. In that fight I was no myself. I was not 100% in my performance. Whole training camp I didn’t feel good because of the loss of my father. I had a new coach for that fight. I started to work with Ronnie Shields. Even on my worst night I beat the guy who just destroyed [Joyce]. I’m glad to show the world what is going on.”