As David Adeleye and Jeamie TKV provided click bait heaven at Thursday’s ‘Heavy Impact’ press conference in Manchester, the show’s main protagonists, Joe Joyce and Filip Hrgovic, sat calmly and waited for their turn to speak.

Compared to the insults and table throwing that proceeded it, Hrgovic’s claim that Joyce is as “slow as fog" sounds tame but as mild as the Croatian’s choice of words may have been, they cut straight to the heart of this weekend’s crunch heavyweight fight.

Hrgovic, 17-1 (14 KOs), and Joyce, 16-3 (15 KOs), will be fighting for their professional lives when they meet at Manchester’s Co-Op Live arena on Saturday night. The ten round fight is the headline attraction of the first show of Queensberry’s partnership with DAZN.

“Look, he's definitely not at the peak of his career,” Hrgovic said, qualifying his statement. “Fighters are getting older. That's just reality. I'm seven years younger. I think it’s going to play a role in this fight.”

Joyce’s speed has never been his strongest suit but until he ran into Zhilei Zhang two years ago, 15 consecutive opponents got themselves lost in the descending gloom and mugged by the relentless Londoner.

Joyce peaked during an eleventh round stoppage of Joseph Parker in September 2022. Since then, he has lost three out of four fights and after walking through everything anybody could throw at him, has been stopped twice by Zhang and dropped by Derek Chisora.

The 39 year-old has faced loud calls to retire but, two days out from the first bell, he looked and sounded clear and focused and didn’t talk as if this weekend’s fight with his old amateur rival could be the final one of a combative career.

“It’s a good fight, good entertainment. It’s good to be here and I expect a great performance,” he said.

“It's good to share the ring with Hrgovic again. We had a good scrap last time, like 12 years ago. The same result is going to happen. I'm going to win and then get elevated back up to the top of the sport.”

Hrgovic was touted as a future champion for years but the steam has run out of his title charge. After losing an IBF interim title fight to Daniel Dubois last June, the 32 year-old Croatian also knows that he needs an eye catching performance to reinsert himself back into the world title picture and leapt at the chance to step in and fight Joyce when a finger injury forced Dillian Whyte to withdraw last month.

Hrgovic is a big man and although the sharp suit he wore could well be camouflage, he looks like he has arrived in Manchester in good shape despite the relatively short notice.

Stamina has been an issue in the past for Hrgovic. He may believe that Joyce is as slow as a cloud but Zhang isn’t exactly a speed merchant and he looked the stronger man down the stretch of their twelve round fight in August 2022 whilst Dubois overcame a sluggish start to break his heart. A bloody Hrgovic looked physically and mentally spent when the doctor halted the fight in the eighth round.

Hrgovic needs to prove that rather than sapping his desire, the loss to Dubois has forced him to rededicate himself to the sport.

“Yeah, it was short notice. I had just few weeks but, like I said, I was already in a good shape,” he said.

“That's why I accepted this fight and I think it's good opportunity for me. This win, hopefully on Saturday, brings me back to the top.

“Motivation is big for sure and like I said, I want to come back to the top. Like Frank [Warren, the shows promoter] said in the beginning, the loser will be in a very bad position so I don't want to lose. I have a lot of motivation.”

Most observers believe that taking on a determined Hrgovic is a much more dangerous prospect than Whyte but Joyce picked the fight and can at least be comforted by familiarity.

Although they were much younger men when they first fought, Joyce has an idea of what to expect when the first bell rings and he also knows exactly how Hrgovic’s trainer, Abel Sanchez, operates having worked with him in the past.

“I know exactly what to expect. I’ve fought him before. I've trained with Abel before so I know what to expect,” he said. “He's had a lot of mileage. He's been in the sport a long time and he's had a lot of hard fights.”

“I think it's going to be a great fight and I look forward to knocking him out on Saturday night.”