Moses Itauma weakness discovered.

I was very disappointed last night. I was hoping itauma would win and the hype was real. Itauma punched himself out. He was trying to win every round by knock out and left nothing in the tank.
He needed to take a few rounds off after the sixth. He could have then moved around and won the fight with his left jab and speed. He was slowing down anyway and might have got beat anyway in rounds 11 or 12.
However you can't throw every punch with everything you have got. He was missing wildly at times. His hooks were completely off target. He needed to keep his punches straight and reset afterwards.
Im so disappointed this morning. He could have been what everyone said he was. Now it will take a massive effort to just become a belt holder in his career.

They have tried this youngest world champion and gone to early. They should take there time now. Try to win British, commonwealth and then European belts and then look for a world champion. It could take 2 - 3 years but he would still only be 23 or 24 by then with more experience and confidence.

 

It's far from too late

What the kid needs is a far more disciplined coach who doesn't let him do exactly what he wants in the ring

Davidson 100 per cent isn't right

The tools are all there but they need work on by somebody different

Too late at 21 is classic tosh from you

 

I think his career is going to be forever remembered for that push from behind and then getting stopped

 

I think this is also spot on. Fury used to get a lot of stick early in his career for been too fat and unfit, but all his fights showed the opposite, despite how he looks Fury has never gassed and generally finished stronger. You don't really get that stamina in a gym, you can improve, sure, and even if you've got it you still need to train, but there's an element of physiology.

I'll point to Haye and Kell Brook as other examples, hard trainers, both of them, sparred a lot of rounds, good diets, employed specialist S&C coaches, couldn't do 12 hard rounds.

And in my view it's not even totally related to cardio, some of it is how the body reacts to being hit. That's what it is with AJ, and I think that's what I saw with Itauma last night.

 

Carl Thompson was 40 years old against David Haye after a long career. Hrgovic 34....probably in the best shape of his life and currently a top eight heavyweight.

It was pretty similar to Haye. In that they both threw their best and underestimated the opponents durability. Both fell into the same trap largely down to inexperience. Moses just went all in with it and inturn got more tired than Haye ended up.

 

My take is nervous energy.

I think Moses came into the ring carrying a lot of it, then burned through too much in the first half of the fight trying to get Hrgovic out.

I also don’t think Ben Davison is the right trainer for him. He needs someone like Robert Garcia who can bring out the best in him, tighten up his pacing and make him more complete.

The fact he said he hadn’t sparred 12 rounds going into a championship fight is criminal. He didn’t even give himself the best possible chance of succeeding.

And I don’t think Hrgovic was particularly impressive either. For most of the fight he was basically a Homer Simpson punch bag, soaking up punishment until Itauma emptied the tank.

Overall it was a one-sided fight that, unexpectedly, ended up going the other way.

New trainer and more activity and he'll be one to watch

 

Hrgovic was poor. He was so basic. He looked like Kubrat Pulev without the jab.

His iron chin won him the fight but that fight yesterday is bound to put some miles on the clock.

 

The best AJ has looked was the second Usyk fight under Robert Garcia.

 

The hype behind Itauma was over the top. It was crazy that he had a world title shot despite never beating anyone close to world level, never being properly tagged, never going beyond 6 rounds, and never having fought anyone who truly fought back with any type of ambition. He had as many unanswered questions about him for someone fighting for a world title than I've ever seen.

However, since getting beat, as per usual, the talk from some people has completely gone the other way and is equally as ridiculous. From the way some people are speaking, you'd think Itauma was in his 30’s, had been violently knocked out by the first shot that landed on him, and, understandably, you'd wonder where he goes from here.

The kid is 21. He has many great physical attributes and offensive and defensive skills. Ultimately, he was vastly inexperienced (limited amateur and pro experience), and this is what cost him.

Itauma admitted in the build up to the fight that he doesn't think he has ever sparred 12 rounds. This is a huge problem. It doesn't just speak volumes about himself (someone who believes his power alone will win him fights inside the distance), but it highlights a huge problem in the team around him. How anyone could let him step into the ring with an iron chinned, seasoned pro who has competed competently at world level is beyond me. How do you even get to a world title shot without ever sparring 12 rounds?

Itauma needs to take a serious look at the team around him. Personally, I think someone like McGuigan would be a good fit for his style.
He then needs to go back to the drawing board by dropping a level and fighting more often. He can go back to fighting twice a year when he works his way back up to world level. He needs to work on his stamina, pacing, not loading up on his shots so much, controlling the pace of the fight against fighters who are trying to not let him do that, and just work on a few tweaks to his skill-set.

Even if he can blow a fighter out quickly, he should take his foot off the gas and get used to controlling the fight with his jab, single shots, and combos of varying power.

He already has many of the tools to make it to the top. It's his fitness, fight management, and experience that is sorely lacking. Thankfully, these can all be worked on and can be improved dramatically with the right tutelage and planning. The important part here is that Itauma has to realise this. If he burys his head in the sand like Wilder did and keeps on thinking that his power will bail him out then he will struggle to improve.

 

He needs to pace his output , learn to win rounds without going all out each round.

Second improve his stamina, more road work , diet , maybe new S&C who can push him and need needs to drop at least 10lbs of fat and replace with muscle.

This loss could actually be helpful and a wake up call , he needs to spar upto 12 rounds near end of camps with 3 fresh sparring partners giving him 4 rounds each .. he needs boxing stamina in the ring ..

He got rushed to Hrgovic , he needed someone with a iron chin to take him at least 6-8 rounds a few times .. so he could of learnt to pace himself..