Moses Itauma vs Filip Hrgovic - 29 Aug

Whilst Hrgovic is extremely tough durable, very physically strong, accurate, powerful when he sits down on his right hand which he doesn't do enough, and is much more experienced and a big step up for Moses, I think Moses could not be more wrong for him and he's simply too fast and is probably the only HW in the world who can not only stop him but could even do so early.

Ben Davison and co study a lot of film and tendencies and I think that's a big advantage for Moses too, especially in this match up, because he possesses the speed, power, accuracy and reflexes and reaction times to exploit these things and Hrgovic is a lot slower and too easy to hit.

If Moses was a 220lb HW with speed and power I could see Hrgovic eating his shots and getting to him late but the problem is he's huge: 6'4'' and 240-250lbs but thick-set like he's 5'10'' and his youth is not a weakness it's a big strength because his reflexes and reaction times are as sharp as they're ever going to be.

He might not have fought anyone top level yet but he won Gold at the European Youth Championships by stopping all his opponents in the 1st round, was holding his own and getting the better of prime HW and CW world champions in the gym when he was as young as 15-16 y/o for goodness sake, and he's taken out the likes of Franklin, Whyte, McKean, and Wach in one-sided destructive fashion and looked very good doing so.

Yes, Whyte was past his best and Wach like 44-45 y/o and way past his best but I said to myself at at the time that I bet if Wach doesn't retire he will still be able to take other prospects the distance and if they do stop him it won't be early and in his last fight earlier this year he lasted the distance vs Viktor Vykhryst who was a top amateur and can punch

And Dempsey whilst no world beater lasted into the 12th vs Hrgovic

So when you weigh it all up it strongly suggests Moses is the real deal and the only question marks, and they're big ones, are his chin and whether he go 12 rounds or not which to be fair not many are going to be able to do against him.

We'll still have to see how his chin holds up against elite HW power ie. the likes of Dubois (who even Shane McGuigan admitted Moses got the better of in the gym), Big Bang, AJ, Gassiev, maybe Jalolov and Riakporhe too but some of those guys are old, well past best, past their best or not that good and HW is not that strong at the moment as the top guys sans Dubois and Kabayel are old, well past their best and on their way out.

Kabayel vs Moses would be a good test for Moses because of Kabayel's skill set and pressure but as I have said before there's no way Big Frank and co would be taking the Hrgovic fight for Moses if they weren't extremely confident of Moses winning and even though they promote Hrgovic too they do not have his interests at heart at all. They're using him as a stepping stone for Moses and if they had his best interests at heart they could easily try and guide him to a world title shot for one of the other belts and then make a match up with Moses or a unification match up between them if they both win world titles which is exactly what they'd do with some of their other favourites.