Whatever short exile Filip Hrgovic spent in the heavyweight wilderness after suffering his first and only career defeat is now decidedly over.
Hrgovic dismantled David Adeleye on Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, surviving a scare in the eighth round but otherwise dominating a contest that was about as exciting as a one-sided, 10-round undercard fight can be.
The scores read 98-91 and 99-90 (twice) for Hrgovic. The fight featured on DAZN in support of the Moses Itauma-Dillian Whyte heavyweight headliner.
Croatia’s 33-year-old Hrgovic, now 19-1 (14 KOs), was coming off a sound win over Joe Joyce in April, but that performance didn’t fully answer whether he was whole again after a stoppage loss at the hands of Daniel Dubois last June. London’s heavy-swinging Adeleye, 14-2 (13 KOs), was meant to help shed light on the subject – and perhaps serve as his own step toward the upper-echelon of heavyweight contenders.
Hrgovic quickly revealed a gap in experience, and seemingly class, by repeatedly stinging Adeleye with jabs and hard 1-2 combinations in the first round. But Adeleye led the second with a left hook and a right hand, then landed a slicing jab that opened a cut over Hrgovic’s right eye – an instant gusher. Hrgovic held Adeleye off for the remainder of the round with the jab, plus a few heavy straight rights behind it – but the damage had been done.
Or had it? Hrgovic’s corner went to work on the cut between rounds, packing it with Vaseline, and their fighter came out in the third throwing quality combinations, especially when he found Adeleye on the ropes. Adeleye was already falling into odd spells of inactivity, whether trying to put too fine a point on Hrgovic’s cut with his jab, attempting to set traps or just biding his time. But just before the bell, he landed a heavy left hook that stood up Hrgovic and seemed to be a wake-up call for the Croatian.
Hrgovic got back to business in the fourth, landing a chopping right hand and a thudding overhand right, keeping Adeleye mostly shelled up and at the end of his jab. Adeleye occasionally popped out to throw a jab or a left hook in the direction of Hrgovic’s cut, but, as DAZN analyst Andy Lee noted on the broadcast, “there’s too much free time.” Hrgovic, with little coming back at him, worked around Adeleye’s defense, hooking and slamming the body, scoring points if not inflicting significant suffering on his opponent. When Adeleye clinched toward the close of the round, he may not have been, but he appeared for all the world to be gassed and uncertain of the path forward.
The fatigue was further highlighted in the fifth, as Adeleye dropped his hands just enough to allow several Hrgovic right hands to come through. Adeleye showed a spark at the bell, landing a flurry Hrgovic may not have expected, and was perhaps buoyed by it. The Brit mounted something of a comeback in the seventh, showing more aggression, shoving Hrgovic away and landing several sharp left hooks. But Hrgovic, whose cut was now dry and holding up spectacularly well, fought intelligently – busy, but also like a fighter who knew he had the deeper gas tank and an advantage on the scorecards.
Then came a breakthrough: Hrgovic popped a flush right hand that buckled Adeleye’s knees and served as a green light to redouble his previously steady efforts. Adeleye responded by stepping back, flexing, unleashing a growl and poking his tongue out from behind his gumshield, perhaps only to convince himself that he was still in the fight. No one else witnessing the fight was buying it – least of all Hrgovic, who followed by exploding a cannon shot of an overhand right on Adeleye’s forehead to send him crumbling to the canvas.
To his credit, Adeleye didn’t let it end there. He waited out the count, flashed his tongue again – this time in the direction of Hrgovic trainer Abel Sanchez – gave his opponent a wink and then landed a pair of big left hooks on Hrgovic that only he knows why he had held in reserve. The fighters exchanged, to the delight of an awoken crowd, as Adeleye suddenly let his hands go. He didn’t land a great deal, but Adeleye did manage to sneak in a stunner of a right hand that briefly left his opponent tipsy. For a moment, it appeared that Hrgovic might trudge back into the heavyweight hinterlands.
Just as quickly as the fight had tipped, briefly, to Adeleye, it see-sawed back to Hrgovic, who chopped away in the final minute of the eighth. Adeleye had shot his last shot – and had nothing left. He swung with a right hand – big and ugly – and Hrgovic easily side-stepped it, coming back with his own unanswered seven-punch combination to end the round.
The moment returned the leverage of the fight to Hrgovic, who maintained it over the final two rounds, absorbing Adeleye’s last-ditch efforts and landing roughly twice as often as Adeleye was throwing. Hrgovic ended the fight having lapped Adeleye, according to CompuBox stats, landing 228 of his 510 punches (44.7 percent) to Adeleye’s 92 connects on 244 attempts (37.7 percent).
Might Hrgovic get a shot at the Itauma-Whyte winner? That has been speculated. A rematch with Dubois, who has since lost a second time to undisputed champ Oleksandr Usyk, could also be a reasonable next step – and a marketable-enough fight for both.
Adeleye, only 28, has time to go back to the drawing board, rally and build a path to contention.
Jason Langendorf is the former Boxing Editor of ESPN.com, was a contributor to Ringside Seat and the Queensberry Rules, and has written about boxing for Vice, The Guardian, Chicago Sun-Times and other publications. A member of the Boxing Writers Association of America, he can be found at LinkedIn and followed on X and Bluesky.
