Off the top of my head this is the third time we've seen this scenario with him. British prospect is heavily hyped. They look impressive against journeymen and then off the back of tons of hype he allows them to take much too big a setup and throws them in with a top guy. Nothing Itauma experienced in his career could've prepared him for this type of fight. Similarly, nobody Dubois fought could've prepared him for a guy like Joe Joyce. And maybe the worst example, ABSOLUTELY NOBODY Anthony Yarde fought could've prepared him for even a faded Sergey Kovalev. Warren is so desperate to build up his own huge heavyweight star a la AJ that he's trying to manage them in the same way that Hearn did Joshua. Joshua I'd argue was still rushed along a bit too quickly but atleast his big step up came against a guy who was clearly a very weak champion in Martin. Itauma and Dubois were put in against guys with very particular and unusual attributes that could make them a tough fight for less experienced fighters. Somebody like Ajagba who has shown more vulnerability would've been a better choice, or even Sanchez who's legs haven't looked good in years. Stylistically Itauma matched up well against Hrgovic but it seems the endless hype made him think he could blow him out. Threw every shot with max power and expended much more energy than necessary. His best chance of an early stoppage was on cuts or maybe to the body, but Hrgovic's cuts held up better than expected and this meant that he was able to take Itauma into deep waters with his ridiculous chin. The body shots were visibly moving Hrgovic more and more but he didn't focus on the body quite enough to force a stoppage. Like Dubois he can comeback from this but it's unfortunate that such an Uber talented prospect had to suffer this defeat. Can never tell how it can affect a guy mentally going forward. Still happy for Hrgovic though as he's been very unlucky in the sport thus far. From being ducked, his father's passing, to the Zhang fight which at the time tanked his stock, to losing to a pretty dirty Dubois. He's finally managed to accomplish something of worth in boxing, just wish it could've came when he was younger.
FW is historically a very good matchmaker and judge of where a fighter is at and where they can get to with the right strategic building but he does come out with some weird ones at times. Bringing over the unknown commodity in the Colombian Prescott with 17 out of 19 knock outs to fight a young Khan on short notice was a particularly stupid bit of matchmaking, you don't gain anything from that and everybody knew Khan had questionable durability. Why would you bring in some massive random puncher from South America who nobody knows much about to replace the original safe option who pulled out? Because it's exciting? It was an exciting one round alright! To his credit years later Amir managed to defeat Maidana who was one of the most aggressive fighters on the planet but he made hard work of that too.
Idk he got him well positioned for a vacant title in a winnable fight. If he didnt gas out it sounds like he was on his way to a comfortable win
interesting to read post fight comments, especially about itauma. about 98% of people online were saying that itauma was going to smoke hrgovic. i had absolutely no doubt that hrgovic would be the victor.. i just loved the look of hrgovic when he arrived in london, happy, relaxed, focused and zoned in... he knew he was stepping into the lions den, walking into a hostile pro itauma crowd.. what a night for croatian boxing.. what a night for croatians in croatia and the diaspora.. itauma fanboys, keep the comments coming..loving it remember what all you guys were saying before the fight. go forth and multiply with your comments.. LOVE IT!!!
I dont think Frank wants to pay the money to half decent fighters to face his fighters most of the time. His preferred risk/reward is pay relatively cheap opponents then bypass the next level so he can keep more of his money in his pocket. I think Hrgovic was a calculated risk. Due to the reward being so good and he,d bypass paying 4 or 5 half decent fighters inflated money to face his much heralded prospect. He also knows Hrgovic has a history of being lazy. He didnt bank on Hrgovic getting the finger out and putting the work in with Abel Sanchez.
"Too big of a step up". Itauma won every second, of every round, even Hrgovic admitted this. The quality of opponent wasn't the issue, Itauma dominated, the lack of experience going 12 rounds was the issue.
He won every round, and then lost. Against a lesser fighter his lack of experience wouldn't have been such a big deal. Hrgovic had the attributes that made it to where this fight could very easily go the distance or into the late rounds and he posed an actual threat to Moses. Wasn't just some Kevin Johnson type survivor who'd give him rounds. Hrgovic was always known to be incredibly tough and if he smelled blood he would not hesitate to attack. He had plenty of experience at the top level and of course he used that in the fight which is why he won. He was tough enough to eat Itauma's shots, and smart enough to allow Itauma to tire while Hrgovic himself didn't throw much to preserve his energy for later. He's a good enough fighter with the right attributes to where despite his stylistic disadvantages, he could and did take advantage of the gap in experience and maturity. Itauma needed a few more fights to fill the gap in quality between a guy like Franklin and Hrgovic. If he'd had a stamina crisis against a lesser fighter in a 10 rounder they might not have been able to capitalise on it like Hrgovic did. Zhilei Zhang had something similar happen against Jerry Forrest but Forrest wasn't good enough to fully take advantage of it. Could have found and ironed the issue out without needing to suffer a possibly demoralising loss. Could Itauma have won and was he winning? Yes, but that doesn't mean that this fight wasn't too much too soon for him. There were too many unknown factors to put him against a guy like this. Was a risk that didn't pay off
He's fired his coach. Nathan Paddison is taking over the reigns. Check out his brilliant fight vs Wildman on YouTube. The guy has 500 street fights and is undefeated!!!!!! He ran Sydney jails.
Warren doesn't plan and execute the gameplan. He put his man in a fight he should and was winning. Whilst building into Itauma's future legacy as the second youngest champion ever. A poorly executed fight plan and continually trying to knock out someone with a great chin with every punch cost Itauma that fight, not Warren. Itauma must be kicking himself. It was brain dead and he threw the fight away rather than Hrgovic taking it away from him.
He’s 21. He has plenty of time on his side. Thry rushed him in trying to make him a very young champion with no experience in later rounds. Also sounds like he doesn’t train hard enough. He needs to work on stamina. Sometimes instead of KOing everyone, you need to simply get the rounds in.
I was thinking about Dubois earlier and the trajectory is almost identical. Hard hitting young heavyweight who's smashed everyone he's faced but never been tested, chucked in with a granite chimned larger heavy. Stopped in the 9th. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but Itauma needed a test against a 10-20 ranked heavy before this fight. Going from facing 5+ year inactive Whyte to Hrgovic was absolutely mental.