Daniel Dubois poses a serious threat to Filip Hrgovic, who is far too experienced to ignore it, but it’s reasonable to assume that the undefeated Croatian is extremely confident in his ability to defeat the Londoner on June 1.
During a few sparring sessions, it has shown that Hrgovic (17-0, 14 KOs) defeated a youthful Dubois. The 26-year-old Dubois promised to put his opponent to sleep in Saudi Arabia, but Hrgovic—who has taken to calling his opponent “Big Duck” after a silly cartoon character he used to watch as a child—hasn’t seen anything to indicate that things will be any different when the two actually trade punches.
“He’s just a little baby for me. 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,” said Hrgovic in media reports.
“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,” he added.
If Dubois (20-2, 19 KOs) and his supporters have faith in Hrgovic after those sparring sessions, it’s because of the way he appeared to clearly conquer his mental demons during his stoppage victory over Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller in December of last year.
Dubois persevered and fought through exhaustion in his bout against Miller, following his decision to concede a decision against Oleksandr Usyk because of severe pain in his eye socket from his previous fight against Joe Joyce.
Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury will square off for the undisputed heavyweight championship on May 18. Whatever the result, the two are obligated to rematch, thus the extremely stringent IBF will demand that the victor promptly relinquish his title so that his required challenger, Hrgovic, may finally get his opportunity.
Though it appears that in Saudi Arabia, whims and desires can take precedence over duty, Hrgovic and Dubois are anticipated to battle for the IBF title, with the victor putting himself in a strong position to face Joshua while Fury and Usyk take care of business.
