He had acquitted himself well in sparring that day, in a railway arch just behind the hotel, and had a few minutes until his latest room service order was due to turn up. He was starving.

It was the late summer of 2013 and he was 21 years old, earning £2,000 a week to spar the former world heavyweight champion David Haye ahead of his scheduled British grudge match with 21-0 Tyson Fury in Manchester.

Little did Hrgovic know at the time, but he was about to throw a right hand that would alter the course of heavyweight history, one that almost nobody, including Haye, ever saw.

“That was an amazing time,” Hrgovic says. “But unfortunately I cut David in our very last spar of the camp. It was destiny."

At the time, reports suggested that the wound above Haye’s left eye, which required six stitches from a London plastic surgeon later that evening, was caused by a flailing elbow but Hrgovic insists that was not the case.

“It was a punch, man,” Hrgovic says. “I saw the cut, saw the blood and remember just thinking ‘oh f**k’. I took a few million out of his pocket so that was not a good feeling.

“But he told me he wasn’t upset, he said ‘that’s life and that’s boxing’ and that it wasn’t my fault. I didn’t do anything illegal, it was not an elbow or a headbutt but it was just destiny.”

Haye and Fury had been due to meet just over a week later, on September 28, but that date was pushed back to February 8 after the cut.

Haye would ultimately withdraw from that rearranged date, too, after undergoing surgery to repair shoulder and bicep injuries.

So one of the most anticipated heavyweight clashes in modern British history never took place, but Fury, an underdog in the fight, went on to dethrone Wladimir Klitschko just two years later.

Haye, meanwhile, did not return until 2016. He racked up easy wins against unknown pair Mark De Mori and Arnold Gjergjaj before closing his career with back-to-back stoppage defeats to Tony Bellow.

“I think, looking back, it’s even better for him that the fight with Fury didn’t happen,” Hrgovic says.

“At that time he was not as his peak and maybe wasn’t so focused. He already had a lot of money and big fights; maybe it was just destiny. But for me it was a great time. I was a kid, man. It was 13 years ago—my first camp with some big champion and big name.

“I had been in London the year before for the WSB [World Series of Boxing] final but this was my first time staying there in a four-star hotel. I was getting paid £2k a week, so as an amateur, it was a lot of money. Staying in that hotel was an amazing experience. I thought I was in heaven. I’m getting paid, ordering room service every day. I was so happy.”

It would be another four years before Hrgovic turned professional, with a first-round knockout win over Zumbano Love in Latvia's capital city Riga in September 2017. He was tipped as a potential world heavyweight champion from the very start and shared that belief due to his performances around the back of the Park Plaza.

“That camp gave me a lot of confidence because David and his coach [Adam Booth] were telling me that I'm a great fighter, that I'll be a world and Olympic champion, and that I must continue to work hard,” he says. “They told me I'm an amazing talent and that they see me becoming a world champion one day.

“And I remember David told me that I reminded him of himself when he was young, that I have that desire to win and confidence in myself. And he said, ‘You remind me of myself when I was growing up, when I was young.’

“So that camp really boosted my confidence.”

On Saturday night, nearly 13 years on and only a few miles down the River Thames, the 34-year-old Croatian will finally get his chance to win the world heavyweight championship when he faces Moses Itauma for the vacant IBF title at the 02 Arena.

There has been much water under the bridge since those days in Vauxhall but the desire still burns just as brightly as it did in 2013.

“When you’re young, you’re happy with everything but when you get older, you become a piece of s**t,” he says with a smile.

“But I’m happy. Now I’m back in London in the end and it's for the world title. It played out. It's for the world title and I'm excited. I don't know; I just believe it's my time and think it’s destiny. Maybe I'm wrong but we'll soon see.”