Filip Hrgovic produced the biggest upset British heavyweight boxing has seen in years, stopping a heavily favoured Moses Itauma in the ninth round at The O2 to become the IBF’s new champion and Croatia’s first ever heavyweight titleholder.
Hrgovic went into the fight as a 5-1 underdog against the unbeaten 21-year-old, who had been talked about as the division’s next dominant force for the best part of two years. For seven rounds, that reputation looked justified. Itauma boxed beautifully behind his speed and variety, even dropping Hrgovic in round two, and looked to be cruising toward the kind of statement win his career had been building towards.
The moment everything turned
Photo: IMAGO
Round seven changed the fight. Itauma went looking for the finish and couldn’t find it, and the effort of trying seemed to empty his tank in a way nobody watching had seen from him before. By round nine he had nothing left to offer defensively or in attack, and Hrgovic, sensing it, pressed forward relentlessly until a fresh knockdown brought a simultaneous towel from Itauma’s corner and a stoppage from the referee at 2:27 of the round.
Hrgovic moved to 21-1 with 16 knockouts. Itauma’s unbeaten record was gone, dropping to 14-1.
A lesson in the gap between talent and experience
For all of Itauma’s obvious gifts, this was the first time he had been pushed past a handful of rounds against a genuinely durable, experienced opponent, and it showed. Talent had carried him to the biggest fight of his career and through seven largely one-sided rounds; it was conditioning, know-how and Hrgovic’s chin that decided what happened once the fight actually turned into a fight.
What it means for the IBF strap and Itauma’s career
Hrgovic’s win adds yet another name to a heavyweight title picture that already includes Agit Kabayel, Murat Gassiev and Daniel Dubois across the other three belts, keeping the division split rather than settled around one dominant figure. For Itauma, the defeat is a serious setback to a career that had been built entirely around the idea of inevitability, but a 21-year-old with his ability isn’t going anywhere: the manner of the loss, rather than the loss itself, is likely to define how quickly he’s able to put it right.
