Moses Itauma vs Filip Hrgovic - 29 Aug

The Whyte Franklin lost a controversial decision to had just got KO'd by Fury, his 2nd KO in his last 3. Whyte had mentally and physically declined since Fury.

Franklin arguably lost every round to AJ, who was coming off back to back defeats and fought scared, despite Franklin being a non-puncher who failed to stop Pavel Sour.

Adeleye and old Joyce at least came to win and carried offensive threat. Franklin would have been significantly easier than either for Hrgovic.

 

Apart from Wardley. You won't be able to knock him out even after he's dead.

 

As a Brit, that's not quite accurate. Usyk beat Chisora and Joshua here on points. Wilder beat Chisora on points. Yes the British stoppages are pretty bad, but that happens even when two Brits are fighting. The referees here are just pretty flustered for some reason (apart from when they let Dubois almost kill Wardley, not sure what that was about).

You sound like you're describing America to me, what with the likes of Fury being robbed against Wilder in the first fight, and the Haney-Lomachenko fight, and some of the Canelo decisions. When it comes to the actual scorecards, I find Britain isn't all that bad.

 

Well there was Joyce before him, we saw how that went

 

True. Obviously I was joking, haha. Joyce-Zhang 1 was probably heading in a very similar direction but in that fight, common sense intervened thankfully and the fight was stopped way earlier. Would Joyce have stayed up if it had continued? We'll never know, but clearly we saw how it had damaged him by the time the rematch happened, and afterwards.

But I don't think I've ever seen someone take as many vicious shots at heavyweight as Wardley did, and refuse to go down. It was absolutely sickening and turned what was a great fight into something horrific. I honestly can't imagine Wardley ever being the same after that. And it's not the first war he's been in either. Dubois will probably KO him fast next time. The worrying thing is, Wardley is still only 31. Joyce was 37 when Zhang happened and was always going to decline anyway at some point.

 

They used to think the same about Joyce tbf

 

Wardleys issue appears to be that split in his nose. Needs to work on that defense a bit more

 

If that extended beating didn't ruin his chin. It may have. To take a beating like that, with Dubois being the guy throwing the punches....

 

Wardley needs some form of nose surgery to try to make his nose not immediately split and give him issues breathing every fight. There's got to be some way to fix it. I mean, it's not like his nose is exactly aesthetic to start with, who really cares how it ends up if it would stop it from being an issue.

 

It would kinda help if he learnt to not block punches with it though. Joshua's had a similar problem with his nose ever since Takam's head destroyed it. Seen it bleed in so many fights since, and it always looks like it bothers him. But Joshua doesn't eat shots for breakfast, lunch and dinner like Wardley does. He wouldn't dare tbh, haha.

 

Now we will see if Itauma is the "new hope".
Hrgovic is not a naive opponent, and in the fight with Zhang he showed that he has a good chin.
And I just wanted to ask the topic "Will someone as young as Tyson or Patterson appear?".
Now we will see

 

On the 10th of May 2026 the world's toughest man on that day was found in Fabio Wardley. Taking 179 cleanly landed punches from a hard-hitting heavyweight with a dynamite right hand, a 95% KO percentage, at his career heaviest, and taking that man (Daniel Dubois) in his longest fight is no joke.
However, that feat doesn't mean his chin's been fully tested. There's other power punchers out there with considerable power that are viable opponents, such as Zhilei Zhang, a man who has knocked down his last 5 opponents, Anthony Joshua, a man who took down Ngannou in 2 and broke Jake Paul's jaw, Deontay Wilder, a man that pummeled Chisora (3 knockdowns to 0 in a close fight), stablemate Moses Itauma who hasn't gone past 5 rounds in all his scheduled 10 rounders, Frank Sanchez, a man who scarily colded Torrez Jr, Junior Fa and handed Efe Ajagba not only his second knockdown but his first loss, Bakhodir Jalolov who similarly colded Torrez in the amateurs, Teremoana Jr, who knocked out Bowie Tupou and had him swinging his arms in the air, and Murat Gassiev who knocked out Kubrat Pulev with a cracking left hook.
So what does this mean for Wardley? It means that he can be considered one of the world's toughest man alive but if he can take power punches from more fighters, or even more from Dubois if a rematch is found, that would bolster Wardley's claim to being THE toughest in the world alive.

 

Maybe the toughest man is the one who got up twice and battered Fabio....?

 

I'd rather not have to find out. He'll probably have to retire earlier than most because if he takes many more beatings like that, things could get really really bad for him. It's sad too, as the guy is one of the most intelligent and well-spoken boxers around (outside of the ring). One of them I can see having big things ahead of him when his career is finished. I hope he realises this before its too late. He needs to sacrifice some of his exciting style for more defense if he wants to carry on. He has terrific power, but he needs to learn when to use it, rather than always trying to get everyone out of there immediately.

 

Wardley didn't use any IQ that fight even by his own standards. Against Parker he actually made some nice adjustments with that uppercut. Against Dubois he was head hunting a bit too much. That all being said has the ref actually enforced the rules of boxing against Dirty D there's a good chance he would have won anyways. Dealing with the wrestling takedowns, headbutts and forearms from Dirty D had to take him out of his element somewhat despite the very good start.