PATERSON, New Jersey – Shaun George has watched the Filip Hrgovic-Zhang Zhilei fight more times than he can remember.
Zhilei’s trainer still can’t understand how three judges scored their 12-round IBF heavyweight elimination match for Hrgovic last August 20 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The previously unbeaten Zhilei scored a knockdown when he landed a right hook during the first round and George knows he had Hrgovic hurt multiple times in the sixth round, when George believes Zhilei could’ve finished off the Croatian contender had he gone to the body.
Judges Leszek Jankowiak (115-112), Pawel Kardyni (114-113) and Robin Taylor (115-112) still scored their competitive fight for Hrgovic, who became the IBF’s mandatory challenger for one of Oleksandr Usyk’s heavyweight titles.
“I thought it was crap,” George told BoxingScene.com. “I thought Zhilei won the fight 7-5. It could’ve been 8-4, in my opinion. There’s a narrative with that fight that Zhilei gave away the last few rounds. He didn’t give away the last few rounds. The last four rounds of the fight were split evenly. Nine to Zhilei, 10 to Hrgovic, 11 to Zhilei, 12 to Hrgovic. To me, the scoring was very easy.”
That controversial loss in his last fight convinced George and Zhilei that the gigantic Chinese contender cannot go to the scorecards with British brute Joe Joyce on Saturday night at Copper Box Arena in London (BT Sport 1; ESPN+). The durable, enormous Joyce has displayed an iron chin during his 15-fight professional career that has enabled “The Juggernaut” to overcome obvious defensive flaws against several formidable foes, most notably former WBO champ Joseph Parker, WBA secondary titleholder Daniel Dubois and Bryant Jennings.
“It was just good, old-fashioned boxing politics,” George said regarding the Hrgovic-Zhilei scoring. “So, Zhilei is going to do what he always does, look for the knockout. We have to knock him out to win. We don’t trust the politics.”
The British Boxing Board of Control has approved two American judges, Wisconsin’s Mike Fitzgerald and Florida’s Efrain Lebron, and one English judge, Phil Edwards, to score the 12-round bout between Joyce (15-0, 14 KOs) and Zhilei (24-1-1, 19 KOs) for Joyce’s WBO interim title.
Zhilei was born and raised in China, for which he won a silver medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, but he has resided and trained in northern New Jersey for nearly 10 years. Joyce will headline this card in his hometown of London.
The BBBofC also assigned often-criticized British referee Howard Foster to officiate the Joyce-Zhilei bout. Foster has a history of stopping fights prematurely, most infamously when he strangely stepped between Carl Froch and George Groves during the ninth round of their first fight and declared Froch the winner while they exchanged punches in November 2013.
Less than two weeks ago, Foster stopped the Fabio Wardley-Michael Coffie heavyweight fight while Coffie was backed against the ropes in the fourth round. Coffie, an American fighter, had taken several unanswered punches from England’s Wardley, but he was still on his feet and attempting to defend himself on the Anthony Joshua-Jermaine Franklin undercard April 1 at O2 Arena in London.
“It’s concerning to me because just two weeks ago he refereed a fight and he stopped it prematurely,” George said. “And it’s concerning to me that they don’t have the best referee to do the job. His history shows that he messes up in big fights.”
Those concerns notwithstanding, George is confident that the 6-foot-6, 280-pound Zhilei has what it takes to upset Joyce, who is consistently listed as at least a 9-1 favorite. George feels that the powerful southpaw he has long trained has been underestimated and is a more complete fighter than people realize, whereas Joyce has erroneously been built up as some sort of indestructible wrecking machine.
“Joe Joyce is a nice guy and I’m not disrespecting him at all,” said George, who went 18-3-2 as a light heavyweight and cruiserweight from 2000-2009. “But going into this fight, I understand what it takes to beat Joe Joyce. Zhilei understands that, too. Everybody seen him get hurt by Bryant Jennings. Everybody seen him get knocked out by Sergey Kuzmin [in an amateur fight]. … There’s this media blitz. To me, it’s corny how they’re doing it. ‘Oh, he’s a juggernaut. He doesn’t get tired.’
“It’s everything to build their fighter up and to belittle Zhilei. When it comes down to it, they’re gonna pay for that. Zhilei is a certified savage. He hits different. Every one of his sparring partners, when they get in the ring with him, it’s like, ‘Oh, crap! I didn’t expect that.’ ”
For the 39-year-old Zhilei, who didn’t make his pro debut until he was 31, this likely is his last chance to move into position to fight for a heavyweight title. Joyce, 37, is the mandatory challenger for Usyk’s WBO belt, but Zhilei intends to take that position from the 2016 Olympic silver medalist.
“We understand that we’re going into hostile territory,” George said. “I mean, the British boxing fans are some of the best in the world. We’re prepared for that. We’ve prepared for that our whole career. We know how to respond to this. Zhilei wanted this fight. I think probably our team are the only people that believe that he can win. But this is our Rocky Balboa moment, versus Ivan Drago.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.