Deontay Wilder and Filip Hrgovic traded leather back in 2013 – and it was all caught on camera.
Hrgovic has made headlines recently for claiming to have ‘beaten Daniel Dubois so bad’ in sparring that he postponed a fight. Whether or not telling tales from the gym is bad practice, fans are suitably intrigued.
It turns out he’s been testing the top heavyweights in the gym since his amateur days, including American knockout artist, Wilder.
The pair had been drafted in to help David Haye and his coach, Adam Booth, prepare for a fight with Tyson Fury. Soundtracked by eighties pop, the resurfaced footage shows them knock lumps out of each other in the Hayemaker gym.
As with his fights, Wilder is out-manoeuvred and out-worked plenty throughout the session, but fires back with a right hand that, without the padding, would deter most men. He can be heard telling the Croatian to hit him ‘as hard as you want.’
Despite Hrgovic landing plenty, Wilder kept his confidence throughout. It’s no wonder when you look at his record for the year. Knockouts of Mathew Greer, Audley Harrison, Siarhei Liakhovich and Nicolai Firtha set him up for his first bout of 2014 against now-trainer, Malik Scott – also a stoppage.
As for Hrgovic, he didn’t turn out to be much help in camp at all. In fact, Haye’s eyebrow was cut in their last sparring session together, forcing him to pull out of the Fury fight.
A year later he would win gold at the Croatian National Boxing Championship, before winning gold at the European Championships and Bronze at the 2016 Olympic Games.
Fast forward to now, and both men are at the top. Wilder held the WBC belt for around half a decade before losing it to Tyson Fury, and now finds himself looking towards a fight with another former champion in Anthony Joshua.
Hrgovic won a decision against Zhilei Zhang in 2022 – one which many disagreed with – to keep his spot as one of the mandatory challengers for Oleksandr Usyk’s heavyweight belts.