Filip Hrgovic (Croatia) continues his transition from prospect to rising contender.   The 2016 Olympic Bronze medalist made it a perfect 10 in the win column after stopping Texas’ Eric Molina in the third round to retain his WBC International Heavyweight crown last Saturday evening December 7th at the Diriyah Arena in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia.   Molina was floored late in the opening round, with Hrgovic offering a punishing body attack and a swarm of right hands only for referee Ian John-Lewis to wave off the sequence, claiming the challenger was pushed to the canvas.   Similarly, another apparent knockdown was overruled early in round two, when a right hand upstairs caused Molina to fall to the canvas.    Action resumed without acknowledgement of a foul.   The American journeyman did his best to fight back, swinging right hands in hopes of catching Hrgovic off guard.   Hrgovic closed the show in style in round three with the referee counting out Molina at 2:03 of that session.   Hrgovic scored his third knockout in as many fights in 2019 since signing a co-promotional deal with Matchroom Boxing and improved to 10-0 (8KOs).   The bout served in supporting capacity to the heavyweight title fight rematch between California’s Andy Ruiz and England’s Anthony Joshua on Saturday 7 December 2019 in Saudi Arabia.

Former champions in this division:

A fight for the vacant belt took place in Moscow (Russia) on 27th November 2017 between Sergey Kuzmin and Amir Mansour.   The fight was stopped in round three due to an accidental clash of heads which caused severe cuts on both fighters’ eyebrows.   The title remained vacant*

Dillian WHYTE,  Jamaica

Anthony Joshua, U K

Aleksander Povetkin, Russia

Tony Thompson, USA

Chris Arreola, USA

Seth Mitchell, USA

Johnathon Banks, USA

Mariusz Wach, Poland

BERMANE  STIVERNE, Canada

ODLANIER SOLIS, Cuba

FRANCESCO DAMIANI, Italy

JIMMY THUNDER, New Zealand

HERBIE HIDE, Nigeria

JAMES OYEBOLA, Nigeria

JOHN RUIZ, Puerto Rico

DAVID TUA, West Samoa

IKE CHARLES IGBEABUCHI, Nigeria

WLADIMIR KLITSCHKO, Ukraine

ROSS PURITTY, USA

DIMITRY DENIS BAKHTOV, Kazakhstan

OLEG MASKAEV, Kazakhstan

SINAN  SAMIL  SAM, Turkey

OLIVER  Mccall, USA

JUAN CARLOS GOMEZ, Cuba