The International Boxing Association (AIBA) has named Croatia’s Filip Hrgovic as its Boxer of the Month for March.

Hrgovic has had a terrific month in the World Series of Boxing (WSB) with the Super heavyweight (91+ kg) winning two bouts for Astana Arlans Kazakhstan.

Hrgovic’s early career
Filip Hrgovic was born in Zagreb on June 4th 1992 and began his boxing career at the BK Leonardo in 2004.

The tall fighter won the Croatian Junior National Championships in 2008 which was his first huge title triumph at home.

He then claimed a silver medal at the Croatian Youth National Championships in 2009 when he lost to EUBC European Confederation Youth Continental Champion Dino Mansour.

On top of the world at the 2010 AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships
The Croatian boxer won their National Youth Championships in 2010 when he stopped all of his rivals before the final bell, and also secured a silver in their elite national event where only Beijing 2008 Olympian Marko Tomasevic was able to defeat the 18-year-old youngster by a single points difference.

Hrgovic arrived to the venue of the AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships to Baku as a medal contender, and lived up to his reputation by winning all of his four bouts in Azerbaijan and achieved the gold in the worldwide event.

He defeated Hungary’s Jozsef Zsigmond, Azerbaijan’s Fargan Omarov, New Zealand’s Commonwealth Championships silver medallist Joseph Parker and France’s Tony Yoka in the gold medal bout.

Later, he won the gold medal in the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games.

A quarter-finalist in the last two editions of the AIBA World Boxing Championships in Baku and Almaty, he was also nearly earned a quota for to the London 2012 Olympic Games in the qualification competitions.

A star of the World Series of Boxing
Hrgovic became involved in the World Series of Boxing (WSB) in the first season of the league still in his teenage years.

A key member of the Astana Arlans Kazakhstan franchise, Hrgovic won the Individual Final of Season II in 2012 before the London 2012 Olympic Games when he defeated Kazakhstan’s Beijing 2008 Olympian Ruslan Myrsatayev.

After Astana Arlans Kazakhstan won the Season III Hrgovic also became a WSB Team Champion, and he defeated star boxers such as Cuba’s AIBA World Boxing Championships bronze medallist Jose Angel Larduet and Russia’s EUBC European Continental Champion experienced Sergei Kuzmin in Season IV.

Having competed in almost 30 WSB bouts, the Croatian is one of the most experienced and successful boxers in the league.

Hrgovic’s performance in March
5-0 in Season V of WSB, Hrgovic had two strong opponents and defeated both with aplomb.

Caciques Venezuela’s veteran boxer Edgar Ramon Munoz was a Beijing 2008 Olympian, but the ringside doctor stopped the his bout with Hrgovic in the second round in Week 8 due to the power and precision of the Crotaian.

Azerbaijan Baku Fires’ Haji Murtazaliyev defeated Filip Hrgovic in the semi-finals of Season IV, but this time the Croatian star got his revenge in their rematch in Shymkent, Kazakhstan.

Hrgovic stopped Murtazaliyev in Week 10, and remains the number one ranked Super heavyweight in the competition.

With only one Rio 2016 quota available for that weight class, Hrgovic has two more matches to win in order to qualify for the Olympic Games via WSB.

“I am very happy to hear I was appointed the AIBA Athlete of March, and it is a great honour for me. It feels great to see many people recognizemy efforts in the World Series of Boxing. I really enjoyed my fights in this season of the World Series of Boxing, especially because I won all of my contests, most of them with technical knock outs. There is so much work left but my target in this year is to qualify to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games,” said Hrgovic.

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