Itauma vs Hrgovic

Think moses wins in 4th or 5th round. Think he will be too accurate for hrgovic

 

It's mad how little buzz there is for this. I popped into my parents' place yesterday & my Dad mentioned the boxing Saturday. I started talking about Itauma & it turns out he meant the girls' card as he'd seen it advertised on Sky

 

Don't know why but I find this hilarious. More people are going to be tuned into Shannon's comeback than seeing if Noakes can put himself back into title contention.

Hopefully someone points it out to Brick-Top in the build-up.

 

Got 30 on Hrgovic by KO/TKO. 11-1 odds are just to good.

 

If Hrg wins are we all in agreement that it's Boxercises' fault?

 

Didn't roll the dice.

 

I’ve not seen a lot of publicity for this fight or read many previews. However, there seem to be two prevailing thoughts: Hrgovic is underrated and could cause a shock, or Itauma will be way too good and this is a really good test on the way to world domination.

It’s a tricky one because I see both sides of those points. Itauma simply looks incredible: great balance, timing, speed, power, and he’s a big guy as well. The other thing is that his pedigree stacks up. He’s been spoken about for years as being precocious, and the sparring stories precede him. That’s important to me because it goes some way towards showing that he’s not a hype job. He could be something really, really special.

However, I’ve long felt that Hrgovic has been underrated. He’s had underwhelming fights against the likes of Zhang and McKean. The former, I legitimately thought he won despite the protests. He’s a big guy with solid fundamentals and a good jab-right hand. He isn’t blessed with concussive, one-punch power, but he’s still handy enough to upset opponents. His biggest issue, for me, is that he goes to sleep in fights or takes minutes off. To be frank, he can be perceived as boring.

What can’t be questioned is his chin. He’s never been stopped, as far as I know, amateur or professional, with the exception of the Dubois fight, which was stopped because of cuts. It’s unquestionable that he has superb resistance as well as toughness, because you don’t fight at the top level of heavyweight amateur boxing, in the WSB and as a professional for 15 years without having a legitimate KO loss unless you possess those attributes.

The problem I see is that I think his attacking weaponry might not be enough to give Itauma real problems. But I’d be surprised if Itauma were able to do what no one else has done and get him out of there early. The chances will come late for Hrgovic - Itauma has never been past six rounds, and at some point, there will be an opening.

Overall, I think Hrgovic is underrated - not necessarily in the context of this fight, but as an overall package in the context of the heavyweight scene. I expect we’ll see a closer fight than many expect.

 

It's a proper gatekeeper fight. Questionable credentials as a title fight but whatever.

For me this is one of those fights where the big puncher finds out of he's a really big puncher, and maybe what happens if the opponent doesn't go down at the drop of a hat. That's why I like it. We've got tix and I hoping Hrgovic can take him into deep water then we'll see what happens.

 

Itauma needs to develop more of a personality, right now he's not particularly marketable outside of the ring.

He's a 21 year old undefeated technical phenom boxing for the IBF world heavyweight championship against a veteran Olympic gold medallist, this should have been the top sports news story in the UK this week. But as of right now, no one outside of serious boxing fans have heard of him.

 

That’s just the lack of Sky. Look at the difference between the first Eubank Jr v Benn fight compared to the second when Sky weren’t involved. All my mates were talking about the first but barely mentioned the second.

 

Switch on, feints and fluidity.

 

That's just how boxing is now, if this was in 2014-2019 on Sky Sports, every casual would be watching it.

 

We'll soon be back to the regular argument about DAZN paying well but having no audience. Except it's paying well cos it loses fortunes.

It all seems very short-sighted. Hearn goes on about Matchroom being a 'sustainable business unlike other promoters' but they hitch up to whoever's hot in the market for the best price. Warren has done the same in the past with Setanta and his own channel, and let's not talk about Riyadh Season. You'd think the stability and reach of Sky would be more of an attraction long term?

 

To be honest I’m happiest when I see fighters getting paid well, irrespective of the what, why, how, they’re the ones with their lives on the line. Obviously Itauma will be earning more per-round or even per-minute than all the women boxing on Sky tomorrow combined, and he’s likely happy not having to deal with all the extra exposure. Some people just want to get in, get out and kick back, not be needing all the nonsense that comes with having a profile and then maintaining visibility on social media etc, or selling your soul.

DAZN’s model will ultimately fail, it can’t not, it’s flawed by design, like a meme coin, unless some sucker buys them out or they float it, but even then it’s delaying the inevitable. I’ve said it previously, eventually all roads lead back to Sky, but that’s when a new dispute arises, as they’ll not be getting paid anywhere near what they’re getting elsewhere, unless Zuffa underwrites all the losses.

How do you see the fight going tomorrow? Would be crazy if Moses turns Hrgovic into a Berbick-type ending.