By Jim Dower: 2016 super heavyweight Olympic bronze medalist Filip Hrgovic (4-0, 3 KOs) picked up his 4th win of his pro career in defeating Sean Turner (12-2, 8 KOs) by an 8 round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Arena Nurnberger in Nuremberg, Germany.
The scores were 80-72, 80-72 and 77-73. It was a one-sided fight for the most part for the 6’6” Hrgovic, but he was still getting hit a lot in the fight. Turner, 26, had the faster hands and the better power. Hrgovic was getting hit with a lot of left hooks from Turner all throughout the fight, especially in rounds 7 and 8. Hrgovic was unable to get out of the way of the shots.
In rounds 1 through 4, the 25-year-old Hrgovic used his height and reach to lab his jab and left-right combinations. Turner, 5’11”, was giving away 7 inches in height to the taller Hrgovic, and that made it all but impossible for him to land his shots with regularity.
In the second half of the fight, Turner started to walk through Hrgovic’s weaker punches and he found a home for his left hook. Once Turner realized he could land his left hook at will on Hrgovic, he kept hitting him with the same shot and daring him to try and block it. Hrgovic he couldn’t get out of the way of those shots in the entire second half of the fight.
In rounds 7 and 8, Turner started landing short right hands to the head of Hrgovic. The shots had respectable power behind them. Hrgovic took them without showing signs of being hurt, but it still looked bad that he was so wide open defensively.
Turner looked good for a domestic level heavyweight. He doesn’t have much to work with as far as power, speed and size, but he looked better than Hrgovic in some respects. With a little more size, Turner would be a good heavyweight. He gave a good account of himself tonight.
Hrgovic is going to have problems when he gets to the next level and begins fighting better opposition. Hrgovic is not a powerful puncher, and that’s going to force him to go the distance for him to get his wins against the better opposition. Hrgovic’s poor defensive skills is going to make him a sitting duck for the big power shot from guys like Deontay Wilder, Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte. Hrgovic might not ever get that far if he doesn’t improve his game.