Moses Itauma vs Filip Hrgovic: Heavyweight Title Clash

Moses Itauma has heard it all week. The jibes, the sneers, the veteran’s promise to “smash the kid” and “send him back to high school”.

On Thursday, he finally answered.

“Talk is cheap,” he said, almost bored by the whole thing. “He has just got schoolboy banter and that’s it. You’ve got to keep rolling.”

At 21, with a 14-0 record and 12 knockouts, Itauma walks into the O2 Arena on Saturday with the IBF heavyweight title on the line, the belt recently vacated by Oleksandr Usyk. Victory would make him the second-youngest heavyweight world champion in history. It would also mean he has just taken out the most dangerous opponent of his life.

Because this is no soft launch. This is Filip Hrgovic.

The Croatian, 34, arrives with 20 wins, 15 by stoppage, and the air of a man who believes he’s about to restore order. He has dismissed Itauma all week, treating the unbeaten southpaw from Chatham as a talented child about to meet a grown man’s reality.

“I am just telling you facts. I am not playing any games,” Hrgovic insisted. “I just tell you what I think in the moment. Like I said, I am not so smart to play these mind games.
“I think he is a kid, he is not mature enough and I think I am the man. I am a much better age, much more experience and yeah, that is it. No mind games. God willing you know I will beat him, I’ll smash the kid on Saturday and send him back to high school.”

The words bounced off Itauma. They always have. Throughout his rapid rise through the heavyweight ranks, he has been measured, almost icy, when the noise around him has grown loud.

On this stage, with a world title at stake and a seasoned contender trying to belittle him, he stayed exactly the same.

“I want to first address that I am not trying to become the second youngest heavyweight champion of the world, I am trying to beat Filip Hrgovic,” he said, cutting through the narrative.
“Second of all, this fight is what I wanted. I asked Queensberry for so long. I think it is a style match-up I reckon I can thrive on, the pressure I can thrive on and it is just waiting to fight.
“Obviously the world title is an achievement and an accolade. And that is a plus one, but my sole focus is Hrgovic. If I ain’t going to beat Hrgovic, it doesn’t matter about the world title and it doesn’t matter about the noise or nothing. My job is to be victorious on fight night. I am ready to rock and roll.”

That line tells you where Itauma is mentally. The history books can wait. The belt is secondary. For him, this is about solving a puzzle: a big, hard, 6ft 6in, battle-tested puzzle who has seen far more rounds than he has.

Hrgovic, an Olympic bronze medallist, carries the look of a man who believes experience will tell. To him, this is a boy rushing the queue.

To many, Itauma looks like the future. Prince Naseem Hamed went even further this week, lighting up the hype machine by declaring the youngster “a million times better” than Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury and tipping him to become the best of all time.

Praise like that can crush a 21-year-old. Itauma refused to let it.

“Obviously it’s good but when I hear things like that, I kind of have to put it to the back of my mind,” he said. “I have such a long way to go in the sport of boxing, but of course I appreciate it from an all-time great like Prince Naseem Hamed.”

The compliments, the comparisons, the talk of greatness: all pushed aside. He has boiled this down to one night, one opponent, one job.

And when pressed on how that job gets done, Itauma didn’t blink.