Filip Hrgovic made good on a promise to punish Mark De Mori early.

He just didn’t get to do it for very long.

Mark De Mori was even more overmatched in reality than was suggested on paper. Croatia’s Hrgovic was methodical and potent with his right hand, which produced the bout’s lone knockdown and the eventual stoppage at 1:46 of round one of their heavyweight mismatch Saturday evening at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.  

Hrgovic—a 2016 Olympic Bronze medalist and current IBF mandatory contender— took exception to the claims made by Australia’s De Mori (41-3-2, 36KOs) to attempt to fold him in half. He vowed at that point to punish him bad ‘like he stole something.’

The lack of punch resistance didn’t allow De Mori to stick around long enough to catch a sustained beating. He was dropped less than a minute into the bout. Hrgovic didn’t rush to close the show, though he also didn’t need to. De Mori turned his back in retreat after he complained of being hit in the back of the head with a right hand.

Referee Mark Lyson warned Hrgovic for the suggested infraction but didn’t buy the act when the 41-year-old De Mori pulled the same move moments later. The fight was stopped at that point, to end De Mori’s manufactured ten-fight win streak.

Hrgovic advanced to 17-0 (14KOs) with the win as he picked up his second consecutive stoppage. Both have come since he was named the number-one contender to the IBF heavyweight title after a disputed twelve-round, split decision win over Zhilei Zhang last August in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The expectation is to next fight for the heavyweight crown. His hope is to face the winner of the Tyson Fury-Oleksandr Usyk undisputed championship, which takes place February 17 in Riyadh. His realistic take is he will be forced to settle for a vacant title fight versus the highest-ranked available contender.

Hrgovic-De Mori was part of an eight-fight Pay-Per-View show. Anthony Joshua-Otto Wallin and Deontay Wilder-Joseph Parker co-headline an event that features six heavyweight bouts.

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. X (formerly Twitter): @JakeNDaBox