Jeddah Superdome, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. In the heavyweight (over 90.7 kg) IBF eliminator, Filip Hrgovic (14-0, 12 KOs) from Croatia and Zhang Zhilei (24-0-1, 19 KOs) from China met. At stake was the right to fight the winner of the unification rematch Oleksandr Usyk vs Anthony Joshua. The fight went the whole distance, turned out to be as competitive as possible.
Favorite Hrgovic set a high pace, punched a lot in the body. It seemed that the left-hander Zhilei was about to crumble, but he unexpectedly dropped the Croat with a right hook 30 seconds before the gong. I did not have time to finish, although the opponent was clearly shocked.
Hrgovic was very active in the 2nd round, forcing Zhilei to wait out his attacks behind the block. He hit with a straight right, but the opponent did not flinch. At the beginning of the 3rd three-minute period, the fighters collided heads. Both have cuts. Will they stop the fight? No, let’s continue!
In vain, Hrgovic spent the previous round so actively – Zhilei seized the initiative, hit several times with a left cross. He is more defensive. He has solid hand speed. He boxing smarter and more accurately, he combines. The favorite has most of the strikes on defense. It only holds on to a more solid workrate. Not impressive.
In the 5th round, Zhilei broke Hrgovic’s nose, brightly intercepted seconds before the gong. I could have dropped it, there wasn’t enough time. It smelled like piss! In the 6th three-minute period, the favorite got even more. The question is, will the underdog have enough fuel?
The 7th three-minute period turned out to be more competitive. Zhilei intercepted Hrgovic’s attacks quite well several times, but he is far from being so good in defense. But he is 39 years old. It looks like there is a fracture.
The favorite began to interrupt the underdog. It was lucky that the referee stopped the fight in the 9th round. Too much water in the ring, both slide. The three-minute period ended with the fact that Chzhilei beautifully intercepted Hrgovic’s attack and almost dropped it. Awesome fight!
Fiction! The Croatian subdued the Chinese in the 10th round with a non-stop punch bombardment. But does he control his energy resources? Competitive next three minutes, during which Zhilei shook Hrgovic, but let go, and then ended up on the floor, he slipped, because the ring is very wet.
In the decisive round, due to the activity, the Croat looked better. Given his status, the victory is likely to be given to him.
The score of the judges: 115-112, 115-112 and 114-113 in favor of the favorite.
Hrgovic UD 12.