Hrgovic Declares Readiness for Rematch with Zhilei

Filip Hrgovic, the mandatory contender for the IBF super-heavyweight title, has confirmed his willingness to participate in a rematch against WBO interim champion Zhang Zhilei. The Croatian boxer confidently stated that he would achieve success again, even if the fight were to take place in China.

“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. There’s no chance he beat me. 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."

"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]," Hrgovic said, as quoted by Boxing Scene.

It is worth noting that in August 2022, Filip Hrgovic defeated Zhang Zhilei via a unanimous decision from the judges.