British heavyweight (200+ lbs) Joe Joyce (16-4, 15 KO’s) and Croatian contender Filip Hrgovic (18-1, 14 KO’s) battled it out on Saturday, April 5th, at the Co-Op Live Arena in Manchester on a Queensberry Promotions card and did not disappoint as their match became one of the firecrackers of the night as it went the distance over 10 rounds. Unfortunately, though the card served as Queensberry’s official debut on the DAZN streaming platform, it also was not without controversy as another heavyweight fight between David Adeleye (14-1, 13 KO’s) and Jeamie Tshikeva (8-2, 5 KO’s) ended on a sour note by the actions of the presiding referee.

Joe Joyce Vs. Filip Hrgovic

With both fighters coming off losses, the two came in with roughly even odds of winning despite Hrgovic having come in as a replacement for Dillian Whyte (31-3, 21 KO’s) ― Joyce’s former-slated opponent who pulled out due to injury.

The bout between the two heavyweights was expectedly evenly-matched as expected, and further helped establish that neither of the two contenders will likely become world champions in the near future.

This especially seems the case with the 39-year old Joyce who showed no improvement as his defensive gaps were fully exploited by Filip Hrgovic. The tale of the tape seemed to be more so Joyce’s inability to have an impact in both defense and offense, proving to be too slow when it came to the latter and too open when it came to the former.

Hrgovic seemed to be dealing with some ring rust and struggled with stamina himself, but at 32-years old he was clearly the fitter fighter despite his own struggles. Both fighters did not deviate from their known styles, with Joyce attempting to overcome Hrgovic with volume punches while the Croatian fighter opted for a counterattacking approach meshed with out-boxing tactics. However, Joyce’s output proved too low and inaccurate against a quality opponent such as Hrgovic, and without the work rate to match his style, Joyce failed to make a sizeable footprint during the bout.

Hrgovic’s strategy worked but not to perfection as Joyce’s own resilience proved too great for Hrgovic to close the fight within the distance. While Hrgovic did not outright dominate, there were plenty of the matches in the bout that went his way as Joyce suffered a large number of landed power punches while supplying few to none of his own.

Following the 10 rounds, Filip Hrgovic was announced the winner by unanimous decision (UD) after scorecards of 97-93, 98-92 and 96-95. As a consequence, the Croatian contender also won the vacant WBO international title that had been made available for the bout.

Despite Hrgovic’s victory, whether he can successfully compete for a world title remains in doubt given Joyce has shown defensive susceptibilities that other heavyweights will not replicate. This was already evident in Joyce’s last bout against Derek Chisora (36-13, 23 KO’s) ― who arguably deviates between being a fringe contender to gatekeeper of the heavyweight division at this point in his career ― but became even more pronounced when Joyce faced a younger, fitter and arguably better heavyweight in Filip Hrgovic.

Following the fight, Hrgovic put out a notable plea for Joyce to retire his boxing career in lieu of the damage he already faced, and would continue to face with his inability to address his defensive shortcomings:

“I think he [Joyce] can give anyone [a] hard fight because he’s just tough, he keeps coming, he throws a lot of punches [and] he’s big,” Hrgovic stated during the post-fight press conference.

“He’d give anyone a tough fight, anyone in the division, but I think for his health, it would be best that he retires because he had a lot of tough fights, he received a lot of punches. He has that open style, not so great defense and like I said, he can give anyone a tough fight but my opinion is that he should retire because of his health, and that’s the most important in the end.“

These same concerns had been noticed during Joyce’s return fight against Kash Ali following his back-to-back losses to Zhilei Zhang, and seemed to not have been addressed properly against Joyce’s subsequent bouts versus Chisora and Hrgovic. Formerly trained by renowned Cuban trainer Ismael Salas, Joyce is now trained by British trainer Steve Broughton ― who served as an assistant to Salas and fellow Brit Shane McGuigan ― but has not made the needed improvements to sustain a boxing career.

Joyce’s own promoter, Queensberry head Frank Warren, has also echoed similar statements as Filip Hrgovic.

David Adeleye Vs. Jeamie Tshikeva

Featuring in the co-main event of Queensberry’s broadcasting debut with DAZN, David Adeleye and Jeamie Tshikeva [TKV] have been said to engaged in numerous sparring sessions against each other despite coming out of different gyms, making for a shared background that spilled into the match.

From the onset, Tshikeva did well given he had less experience in the pro’s and came in as the older fighter. Notably, Tshikeva caused numerous issues for Adeleye through his jab, stifling his opponent whenever Adeleye sought to make an impact in the pocket ― where he’s proved to be most effective throughout his career.

Adeleye failed to mark the bout the way he wanted to as a result, and the bout to be very slow-paced as TKV surprisingly took every round through a cautious but extremely effective approach that stifled Adeleye’s attempts.

This all changed early in the 6th round, however, when referee Ron Kearney caused great confusion as the two heavyweights clinched with each other. Yelling “break” to both fighters, signaling them to break from their clinch, Adeleye threw a short right hand after during the break which resulted in TKV being knocked down.

Adeleye’s punch was a clear and flagrant foul given the referee’s signal indicated neither fighter were allowed to throw anything, but this transgression went ignored as TKV beat the count of 10 to continue ― to TKV’s own detriment as he was now clearly hurt and shaken, allowing Adeleye to spent the next couple of seconds pressuring him with debilitating shots before TKV was knocked down for the second time.

The referee waved the match off after the second knockdown after seeing TKV’s state, and Adeleye was announced the winner by technical knockout (TKO) afterwards, though controversy continues to reign surrounding the match and Adeleye’s shot that culminated in TKV being knocked down for the first time.

The crux of the issue is centered around the referee’s inability to address Adeleye’s violation of punching during the break which arguably should have resulted in a disqualification for Adeleye. As has proven to be quite pronounced and common in boxing, the referee completely ignored Adeleye’s illegal shot which completely turned the tide in his favor after arguably losing every round before that.

The discussion now revolves around whether the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC), responsible for regulating all bouts held in Britain, will take any action against referee Ron Kearney. Potentially, this could result in the match being turned to a no-contest or even a disqualification win for TKV depending on what, and whether, the BBBofC decides.