Ten days out from his short-notice assignment against former WBO interim world heavyweight champion Joe Joyce, Filip Hrgovic is finishing a brief training camp in his native Croatia seeking to avenge an amateur defeat twelve years later and return to winning ways.

Fight week in Manchester will mark ten months since his first pro defeat, a particularly painful one against former sparring partner and reigning IBF world titlist Daniel Dubois (22-2, 21 KOs) in Riyadh.

The 32-year-old (17-1, 14 KOs) has insisted that while some fans and critics may have been questioning his resolve to return, time away from the spotlight was a blessing in disguise as he welcomed a daughter into the world and continued training behind-the-scenes.

"It's not like other sports, it's tough to lose in boxing because you get beaten in-front of the whole world.

I was supposed to win, really confident I would beat him but a lot of bad things happened coming into the fight, injury, got sick before so didn't come in my best shape but thought I'd still win in those circumstances," he told BoxNation.

Having spoken to him in the build-up before Dubois, Hrgovic told all that would listen about the younger man's negative defensive tendencies - suggesting there would be a repeat of the contender who suffered stoppage defeats to Joyce and later was "taken to school" by unified champion Oleksandr Usyk, the latter he watched ringside.

His confidence was further strengthened by sparring Dubois, then barely out of his teenage years, who he inflicted "a lot of punishment" on, so much so that the 27-year-old didn't show for two of their scheduled four sparring sessions at the Peacock Gym in east London six years ago.

Nonetheless, his theory surrounding Dubois' mental state was proven wrong emphatically and El Animal congratulated the Briton after seizing the moment, one he'd long been waiting for.

However, much like Dubois' dramatic withdrawal deep into fight week before his proposed title showdown with Joseph Parker last month, Hrgovic believes their bout should've been postponed too as he wasn't at 100% fitness.

"I took him too lightly and underestimated him, thought it'd be a much easier fight for me. I should've postponed it because of what happened before [fight night], was really sick but still thought I'd have enough energy to knock him out. He took my best and won, congratulations to him, a totally different man than a few years ago."

Hrgovic rejected the notion he suffered a brutal beatdown, pointing to insufficient conditioning from an undisclosed injury causing him to miss three weeks' worth of training camp, and cuts above both eyes as key factors behind the defeat.

"I lost my energy after five or six rounds, could hardly see his punches coming from the second round, had two deep cuts and they affected my vision, my focus and gave him confidence to push me."

He drew parallels between his display and the one produced by two-time unified world champion Anthony Joshua, with whom a Wembley date was the shiny reward dangling for the winner of their June 1 bout. Dubois has parlayed that into a wealth of options for his next fight.

"Tactically, I made a mistake giving him too much space to move forward, should've pressed him more to go backwards, needed to block his jab and move my head more. I was too confident that one big right would land and he'd go down, Joshua made the same mistake by letting him come forward, trying to catch him with counters, we both did the same."

He began working with Abel Sanchez, one of Joyce's former trainers, after searching for a refresh in his team following last summer's stoppage defeat. Sanchez's old-school, 'militant' attitude came across during a trial period last September in Big Bear, California as he was twice mooted to return over the winter months before this callup.

Joyce (16-3, 15 KOs) turned 39 that month and while Hrgovic believes the Olympic silver medallist's time is finished, stresses they are not the same and will prove it next weekend.

"I feel great, I'm only 32 and that's not old for a heavyweight, have at least five more years left at a high level and want to come back to the top."