Whether it was Oleksandr Usyk, Mike Tyson, George Foreman, Tyson Fury, or certainly Daniel Dubois, Filip Hrgovic thought he couldn’t be beat.

When he strolled to the ring on June 1, 2024, he smiled widely as Dubois waited for him. A few rounds later, however, that smile morphed into a look of panic and despair.

Fans at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, roared as Dubois pounded Hrgovic over and over again. By the eighth round, blood flowed into Hrgovic’s eyes and his mouth remained wide open as he breathed deeply for air.

Already beaten mentally and physically, a ringside doctor informed referee John Latham that the plug should be pulled. Although it’s been nearly a year since then, Hrgovic still can’t believe what happened.

The 33-year-old knows he isn’t in a position to make demands, but what he would like more than anything is to run things back.

“Hopefully, I’ll get that fight again and I’ll beat him,” Hrgovic told The Ring. “That’s the fight I want the most. I want a rematch. I think I can beat him.”

Momentum is a funny thing in boxing. One minute you have it, the next minute you don’t. Dubois, after being on top of the world, lost his IBF title to Usyk a few short weeks ago at Wembley Stadium. Hrgovic, on the other hand, has things rolling.

In his first appearance of the year against Joe Joyce on April 5, Hrgovic (18-1, 14 KOs) worked hard for his unanimous-decision win at Co-op Live Arena in Manchester. He’ll need to make it two in a row if he wants to get closer to a rematch with Dubois.

But David Adeleye is looking for a career-changing victory against The Ring’s No. 6 heavyweight on Aug. 16 in Riyadh.

Of course, all eyes are on Adeleye but Hrgovic recently allowed his mind to wander to the past.

Dubois beat him fair and square. No argument there. But was that the best version of Hrgovic?

“A lot of bad things happened before the fight,” Hrgovic said. "I was injured the last few weeks of sparring. I was sick before the fight. You could see that in the fight. After six rounds I didn’t have energy because of that illness and I took him lightly. I thought I was gonna destroy him.”