By far the most one-sided affair on the Day of Reckoning fight card, Filip Hrgovic didn’t break a sweat getting rid of Mark De Mori in the opening round.
Fans were wildly disappointed at the matchmaking for Hrgovic, whose best win is a contentious points decision over 2023’s standout heavyweight, Zhilei Zhang.
Since then, he has scored a final round stoppage against Demsey McKean, clinging tightly to his IBF number one slot in anticipation of a challenge for a vacant world title assuming the winner of Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk is stripped early next year.
Fans will understand he wants his shot at the belt and may not want to risk it this close against a top contender, but still De Mori was ridiculously cautious.
The 45-fight heavyweight has been on a run of eleven low-level victories following a first round knockout loss at the hands of David Haye way back in 2016.
He was honest during fight week, saying he couldn’t hang with Hrgovic for the distance and that he would test him in the first four rounds by attempting to get the stoppage.
In the end, he didn’t do much at all. The first right hand Hrgovic landed of any note saw his opponent take a knee, and another swarm had him turning his back. The referee waved it off, as one man clearly didn’t want to be there.
Hrgovic moves to 17-0 with 14 stoppages.