Hrgovic got a lot of criticism for his stamina in his earlier career. I wonder if it was a bit harsh, or his stamina just had simply improved a lot - or possibly his stamina is still average and he simply managed his gas tank far better than Itauma did. One of the reasons I say this is because he didn't look fazed at all from the body shots he took from Itauma. Whereas, after watching the highlights Itauma looked as if he lost 5% of his tank every time a body shot landed from Hrgovic. Every time Hrgovic landed a body shot on Itauma later in the rounds, he winced in pain and would slowly lose his coordination. Hrgovic boxed beautifully this fight and it was one of the best fights I've ever watched. I'm not an Itauma fanboy! And I thought Whyte would beat Itauma last year - expecting the fight to play out how Itauma - Hrgovic did. Whyte had a strong reputation for being a very crafty bodypuncher in his prime, and Itauma had only beaten the likes of Wach, McKean, etc.
What I will say in this one is that it looks like we are seeing the fruits of Hrgovic under Abel Sanchez and Big Bear without the illness he had before the DDD fight. He cam in at 237? Lightest he's been in an age, and it seems the claims of 'best ever camp' were well founded. My previous issues with Hrgo in fights was less about stamina and more mental focus - he seemed to have a propensity to switch off, get disinterested and 'zone out' for want of a better term, even turning his back at times, which could look like stamina issues. None of that was remotely visible on Saturday, he was razor focussed at all times, concentrating on his distance from Moses and worked well when he needed to.
To be honest that was the best version of hrgovic i’ve seen in a long time Even abel said back then that hes never had anyone of hrgovics size who could push and hold such a high pace in cardio training Even though he lost most of the early rounds he really made the absolute most out of his strengths I’d say his gastank has been steadily improving since abel, but we ll see if that holds up in his next 1-2 fights.
My impression was that he probably hides the effect well. There was a round when hrgovic actually dropped way down in activity and to me it seemed caused by the body shots. (6th or 7th maybe?). Before and after he would push in between when Itauma stopped for a breather, but in that round he had long stretches of just trying to stay out of reach via movement.
Hrgovic did have bad stamina, he visibly faded against Zhang and regularly weakened over the second half. Then he hooked up with Abel Sanchez (whose whole thing is basically extreme cardio training at altitude for weeks on end), and now his stamina issues seem to have gone. From an interview with Abel Sanchez a few years back about GGG: "We get up at 5am and we run at 6am. We run for an hour-and-a-half, then we go back to the gym for an hour to do strength and conditioning. "At 3pm he comes back into the gym. If we're not sparring, then he's hitting the bags and hitting the mitts. "Strength and conditioning is on Tuesdays and Thursdays... "I only spar Gennady nine days for a fight - Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. He will not spar more than 75 rounds for this fight [against Kell Brook]." (https://www.skysports.com/boxing/ne...le-gs-training-regime-revealed-ahead-of-fight) GGG also mentioned in an interview that his training would usually consist of either a 3 mile run, a 4.5 mile run, sprints, or a weekly 9 mile run on Saturdays. (https://www.gq.com/story/gennady-golovkin-real-life-diet) That much cardio at altitude that consistently will inevitably build a very strong aerobic base, although I do think it runs the risk of overtraining fighters, and I personally think a lot of trainers put too much stake in the benefit of high-altitude training. But it's clearly worked well for Hrgovic.
Certainly something Itauma needs to work on! Curious to know what you thought of Itauma’s philly shell defence? It seemed to me that the practicality rather than the theory/idea let the defence down in the Hrgovic fight. Even before Itauma’s gas tank ran out - the philly shell was still susceptible to jabs and left hooks. Also, another thing I noticed was that Itauma looked short of ideas when backed up into the ropes.
It's a fight, everyone gets hit. Itauma does have good defence. He's slick and he uses his arms well to parry and block punches. I like the elbow parry he does and how he rolls punches. But he mostly relies on his legs for defence. His legs tired and so he got hit more. For a man who couldn't stand I thought he did a decent job of avoiding big shots.
