Itauma-Hrgovic is now for the Vacant IBF Heavyweight World Championship

Current Heavyweight Champions

• WBC: Agit Kabayel (won June 27, 2026)
• WBA: Murat Gassiev (won June 26, 2026)
• WBO: Daniel Dubois (won May 9, 2026)
• IBF: Vacant

A new era in the heavyweight division is dawning upon us.

We can certainly look forward to an exciting period ahead, with the hopeful prospect of swift unification bouts.

Our gratitude goes to Oleksandr Usyk; by vacating the titles, he has graciously paved the way for the younger generation of fighters to showcase their talent on the world stage

 

He's a good talent but my god is he privileged!

High rankings from early without merit, WBA yesterday installed him as mandatory, today he's suddenly got a IBF vacant title shot (probably cause of the WBA making him mandatory)

All the associations seem desperate to have him as their champ.

 

In my opinion this decision by the IBF will only anticipate what would have happened a few months later anyway, that is, seeing Itauma with the world championship belt.

 

It's a good match up for a vacant title bout, but didn't Frank Sanchez just win an eliminator? What was the point?

At the same time, I'm happy for Hrgovic. It would be a shame if he never got a title shot after going through the murderer's row with Zhang, Dubois and now Itauma.

 

Frank Warren paid Sanchez step aside money.

The long wait for a first ever Cuban Heavyweight champion continues!

 

Winning the vacant belt does not mean much from a sporting point of view. But the number of defenses of that title - shows something.

Yes. Mate Parlov was the LHW champion.

 

Hrgovic finally gets a title shot. and it’s against Ituama.

rough. He could probably beat Gassiev.

 

I still like Hrgovic's chances to win this, given Ituama has only been six rounds at the most, and it's been three years since he even went that long in a fight.

But Hrgovic's going to need to dominate in order to upset the applecart, most likely in the later rounds.

When Wilder fought in the same arena in February, he basically had to floor Chisora five times, including punching him out of the ring on three occasions, to secure a "split" decision.

Ituama is supposed to be the next big thing. With a strap on the line, nobody there is going to give Hrgovic the benefit of the doubt in this one.

 

Itauma shouldn’t be fighting for a title yet. We all knew they would fast track him to a title shot.

Hrgovic has to dominate to win a 115-113.

 

Itauma possibly winning a belt at 21 is crazy.

 

His age, to me, isn't as crazy as doing it in his 15th pro fight ... because he really hasn't had many fights against adults.

Half of Ituama's 24 amateur fights (12 of them on Boxrec) occurred when he was 12-14 years old.

I don't think fights you had when you were 12 years old matter at all at this point.

This guy hasn't had many fights against grown men.

 

It is certainly a strange course of events that bought about this Itauma-Hrgovic fight for the vacant IBF title.

On July 1st the IBF announced Itauma and Sanchez had until July 29th to reach an agreement to fight for their vacant title. The irony at the time being that Itauma and Hrgovic had already agreed to meet at the end of August.

Itauma and Sanchez didn't reach an agreement and, although Sanchez was #1 contender at the time and still is, we end up with Itauma-Hrgovic for the vacant IBF title?

Warren and Itauma have manipulated things very cleverly here.

Yes, Sanchez is getting step aside money and yes, the IBF have said the winner of Itauma-Hrgovic must fight Sanchez next....but this isn't how things should have played out and l won't be surprised if Itauma wins and Warren finds a way of avoiding Sanchez again.

 

He's been a pro almost 4 years. That's long enough.Tyson was only a pro for less than 2 years when he got his title shot

 

Yea, and Tyson is the youngest heavyweight champ, technically. Itauma too would be one of the youngest heavyweight champions, which is quite something.
In fact, I think this might make Itauma the youngest champ since Tyson himself, actually - 40 years ago?