Frank Warren Failed Moses Itauma.

I see what you are saying but disagree

Before the fight I said... Below
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Respect both men for what they are doing, but favour Hrgovic

I have a feeling Hrgovic will win inside the distance

In the UK the HW scene is very tough, especially when campaigning for the British title at the weight
That can be a make or break fight
Just look at the level of some of those bouts with fighters that are still active

Fury vs Chisora
Joshua vs Whyte
Dubois vs Gorman
Dubois vs Joyce
Wardley vs Adeleye
Wardley vs Clarke

Sometimes though UK based HWs tend to go down the international route a bit more where they are good promising HWs but get stepped up a bit too soon, where they often do themselves proud but haven't had the tough British title route that as said seems like it can make or break

Itauma seems to be going down the international route
...........

I think it was the above
Itauma, I thought was very impressive and had he gone the more British route possibly had a bit more experience
He would likely have won the fights leading there but maybe had a few small scares on the way, possibly fighting other prospects who don't want to lose and tough fighters like Adeleye

 

Itauma at the end of the day

was really the author of this failure

rather than Frank

 

I agree. Also I am happy for hrgovic, who also certainly learned how to deal with the media and business side of things.

BUT before the fight everyone tried to outdo each other in explaining how everything was set up for itauma to win, hrgovic's tendency to get cut, how he is too slow to keep up with itauma, how he has too little power etc. And finally howard foster as a referee.

So if warren made this mistake (which I agree) - many many boxing fanatics didn't see it coming.

Btw my pick was for hrgovic to win (saw it as a 50-50), but because i thought his jab might offset itauma because his jab was so good against dubois. I thought he might prevent itauma from setting himself and entering range. But itauma totally won the duel of the jabs. Late rounds was a consideration for hrgovic to win on stamina, but I didn't think he would take everything itauma had for the first half of the fight and hardly flinch. Once he stumbled into a lead hook and didn't waver. And his scar tissue held up well. And Foster didn't jump in.

Hard to expect this

 

They took a gamble and they lost. That's it.

Itauma will come again, hopefully with a better trainer.

 

Sometimes going up a level, exposes them to their true level. Got nothing against Ituama, but it’s fairly obvious he’s got some gas tank issues and a very soft mandible.

 

A soft mandible based on what exactly? It was running out of gas that cost him, not a bad chin.

 

Frank’s not going to take a huge hit on this.

It’s Ben that’s going to take huge criticism.

Shocking tactics.

 

Moses would have even lost to Zhang

 

This particular situation is the result of Riyadh season and the accelerated marketing that took place in relation to Moses. Turki was publicly calling for Itauma to fight Usyk after his 11th bout in attempts to speed run his ascent. This heavily influenced his public perception and Queensberry ran with it.

Furthermore this Itauma debacle serves as evidence that the intended style of matchmaking for Zuffa will likely fail. Not to take away from Hrgovic's victory and clinical dismantling but the outcome of the fight was largely due to inexperience inside the ring on Itauma's behalf.

There is and always will be a place for a conveyor belt of "tomato cans" to be served up to a prospect who showcases championship potential. He is meant to blast through them one by one in devastating fashion, thus accumulating rounds and experience. This fight was roughly a dozen fights too early.

 

You have to step your prospects up at some point.

You cannot feed Moses scrubs for the rest of his career, if you are planning on building a future world champion and superstar.

The idea behind Moses is that he will peak early, due to his personality, he won't be seeing old bones as an elite HW.

Frank has forgotten most than most people will ever know about how to develop a fighter.

The fact is Moses came up short with this latest step up. Now its up to him to knuckle down and get himself into shape. One loss is not a big deal at his age, he can come back from this. This defeat may actually be the making of the man.

 

It was hilarious to me to hear all these people comparing him to Iron MIke. Mike had a legendary trainer who was molding him in a specific style since he was a kid. Mike fought a bunch of nobodies for the most part, but he fought a LOT of them and they were still better than the guys Itauma had faced. Mike was murdering almost everyone, but he still had to overcome adversity against guys that wouldn't go away like Green and Tillis. And unlike Itauma, Mike wasn't out there claiming his chin would never get tested and that he didn't need to spar 12 rounds.

I think Bricktop has been under a lot of pressure. The Saudi stuff is blowing up in his and Eddie's faces now. They ate real good for awhile, but now all that's over. He's going to be feeling the pressure of needing stars that can sell fights that actually turn a profit instead of relying on Saudi charity. So he deluded himself into thinking this kid was further along than what he was. And he had no problem selling the idea, either. I've never seen any boxer glazed to the level Itauma was for accomplishing nothing at all. The entire British boxing media apparatus was going around proclaiming him the future of the HW division and acting like it wasn't even going to be a question. Bricktop had his minions at Talksport claiming Itauma would clear out the entire division tomorrow and even smoke Usyk easily.

Someone should have reminded ol' Frank that you never get high on your own supply. It's all well and good to sell the casuals on this kid being something he ain't proved he is, but you yourself have to know better.

 

This fight reminded me of David Price against Thompson the 2nd time, didn't pace himself and was gassed bad after 6.

 

Someone should try and cheer up Frank by reminding him that Hrgovic like Itauma is part of his Queensbury stable and he promotes both of them so really it was a win win situation for him really.

 

Surely durability is a massive factor in the quality of an opponent tho especially at heavyweight. Probably one of the most important qualities.

 

Hmm… I don’t know. I think it’s easy to be wise after the event with stuff like this. The prospect is knocking fighters over left, right and centre and everyone calls for him to stop fighting “cans” and fight someone who can take him rounds. And to be fair, that’s what Franklin was supposed to do, he was a fringe world level fighter who had never been stopped. Then when he fights someone who can take him rounds and loses as a result (which is what it was, he wasn’t exposed as totally unable to hang with someone of Hrgovic’s calibre) then he shouldn’t have been “thrown in” against him.

Itauma is still only young, he can learn from this in the same way that David Haye did after Carl Thompson. Sort his conditioning out and learn to pace himself a bit better and he can still have a very good career and potentially be a world champion. But some of the more expansive hype might have to be reigned in a little.