Filip Hrgovic 16-0 (12) is the only viable option to replace Dillian Whyte 29-3 (19) against Anthony Joshua 25-3 (22) at the O2 Arena in London, England on Saturday night.
Whyte was a late scratching from the Joshua bout after testing positive to a banned substance for the third time in his career.
Now the search is on to find a viable opponent to replace him and keep the card alive.
Promoter Matchroom Boxing wisely scheduled a pair of heavyweight bouts for the undercard, meaning there is the potential to shift one of the fighters up into the main event.
Those two bouts are between Hrgovic and southpaw Demsey McKean 22-0 (14), along with former world title challengers Derek Chisora 33-13 (23) and Gerald Washington 20-5-1 (13).
Joshua was hoping to have a second hit-out under new coach Derrick James ahead of a mooted clash with former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder 43-2-1 (42) in Saudi Arabia in December. A loss for the two-time former WBA, WBO and IBF champion would put paid to those plans.
Joshua has already lost to a late replacement in Andy Ruiz Jr 35-2 (22) in June 2019, a fight that cost him his unified championship. He regained his titles in an immediate rematch six months later.
The challenge for Matchroom and Team Joshua is finding an opponent that they can sell to the public without jepordising the Wilder bout.
International Boxing Hall of Fame inductee Carl Froch can see just one option for Joshua, whether he likes it or not.
“AJ needs to fight. We’ve got Hrgovic-McKean on the undercard. This could save the show. If Hrgovic can actually agree to fight AJ and AJ fancies the job, that’s a great fight,” Froch said on his YouTube channel.
“Hrgovic is a very, very capable fighter and he will give Anthony Joshua a great test, he really would. If AJ is happy with the Hrgovic fight then I think the fans are going to win there. McKean will have to take step-aside money, nobody is going to be too upset about McKean not fighting.
“Let’s be honest, AJ-Hrgovic, that would be a fight that we would want to see, so hopefully that one can be a show saver, but let’s wait and see what happens. I’m not so sure AJ would fancy that.
“Hrgovic would be a real acid test for AJ before he steps on to bigger and better things. I’ll be honest, that is probably a better fight than the Dillian Whyte fight. Hopefully that can happen; if it does I’ll be there, if it doesn’t and they get some late pony replacement, I’ll be honest, I’m not that interested.”
Meanwhile, Chisora’s former manager David Haye says he heard a whisper about Whyte’s forced withdrawal a week ago.
“It’s funny, I got a call from Dereck Chisora about a week ago telling me this exact thing would happen,” Haye told SecondsOut Live.
“I didn’t pay much mind to it, but he was telling me he’s fighting AJ a week ago.”
