The highly-rated Filip Hrgovic maintained his perfect record with an easy stoppage of Marko Radonjic in their showdown in Austria on Friday night.
Hrgovic (13-0 with 11 wins inside distance) is one of the most avoided men in the heavyweight division – with not one of the top 15 willing to fight him in a planned IBF final eliminator for the title held by Anthony Joshua. He had not fought since stopping Rydell Booker in November 2020.
So the 29-year-old was delighted when ‘Montenegro Hammer’ Radonjic – who had a 22-0 pro ledger coming in with all of them inside distance – stepped in to take the challenge.
Hrgovic way too classy
But the gulf in class between the two was huge as the 29-year-old Hrgovic had his opponent on the floor five times en route to a stoppage after three rounds.
The first couple of minutes were pretty circumspect from both men – unsurprising given the number of KOs both have dished out so far. Hrgovic controlled centre ring behind a high guard and a pawing left jab. Radonjic meanwhile tried to counter with swift left hands out of a southpaw stance.
Late in the opening session Hrgovic managed to land a lovely right through the guard of Radonjic, serving notice that he was the man with the real class in this one.
Four knockdowns in Round 2
If the opening round lacked fireworks, the second more than made up for it as Hrgovic had Radonjic on the floor four (FOUR) times during the three minutes.
The first knockdown came via a swift right to the temple of the ‘Montenegro Hammer’, and he struggled to beat the count. He would though make it up but in the next 45 seconds he would be down twice more – again both via right hands. Then a body shot in the closing seconds supplied the fourth knockdown of the round.
Radonjic regained his composure and his legs in between rounds and was again trying to land that big left as they went into the third. But his agricultural style was no match for Hrgovic. The Croatian landed his fifth knockdown a couple of minutes into the session with a cracking body shot followed immediately by a left hook to the head.
Though he did survive the round and make it back to his corner, there was clearly little fight left in him and the bout was stopped before the fourth could begin.
