Filip Hrgovic is a more talented fighter than Moses Itauma

His speed and reflexes are extremely fast, freakish for a man of his size, and he's pretty big, especially by historical standards. He has decent-good power and is deadly accurate. He has a wide offensive arsenal, is able to throw shots from unusual positions.

He would have blitzed most of the top 10-15 on the Hrgovic performance but very few have Hrgovic's toughness, plus his ability to close the show. My criticism is that while he has great talent in some areas and is very flashy, he is lacking talent in other areas, such as durability, stamina, mentality, intelligence.

 

"Bums" is not very nuanced. Franklin was a tough spoiler, a high level journeyman type. Itauma sparked him out in 5, whereas AJ, Whyte and Dychko couldn't even put him down over 34, I don't think they even hurt him. They did not look good, Itauma did.

And in regards to the other fighters Itauma KO'd, no one was looking as good against them. McKean for instance got to the 12th with Hrgovic and won a round or three, a 19 year old Itauma KO'd him inside 2 minutes. Clarke went the full 10 with Wach, 19 year old Itauma dropped and stopped him in 2, 37 year old Fury went on to stop an older Wach in 7 etc.

Itauma had 10 impressive performances in a row going back over 3 years, albeit at Franklin level or below. He clearly has a ton of firepower, and it was on full display for 8 rounds against Hrgovic. Hrgovic happens to have an A* chin and a ton of grit, which is a huge part of why he won, but many contenders would have gone under that night vs Itauma.

Perhaps Itauma will be mentally broken by the loss and go on to achieve little, or maybe he will become a significant champion. We can't say with any certainty how it will play out. But it's a big win in any case, taking out arguably the biggest prospect in the sport and 1/7 favourite in his hometown.

 

That is a factor yeah. AJ had the physical ability to get rid of Franklin inside 5 rounds too but it would mean risking getting hit with shots he didn't see coming and an older, 3 loss AJ wasn't interested in that. AJ got rid of durable journeyman spoiler Kevin in 2 when he was young. And while Itauma looked good getting rid of shot Whyte inside 2 minutes, an exuberant AJ put massive damage on a 27 year old healthy Whyte in round 1, and would have got rid of the shot version just as quickly as Itauma did.

If you come out with no fear and sprint the early rounds it increases the chances of getting spectacular wins but it takes ability to execute it regardless, let alone 10 times in a row. Still, it's easy to be the hammer, and Itauma didn't do well the first round he was the nail.

 

Yes. In a sense, Hrgovic was his first actual fight. The other guys were totally outmatched even if they had some intent (maybe Balogun falls into that category) but most had no belief, little desire, and were coming to survive (Franklin), if not fall over early. There were also hints his power was not overwhelming given he didn't get rid of two journeymen who lacked winning records, even though they were just 6 round fights and he was only 18.

The hype certainly increased pressure and it increases the pain of defeat for the fighter but the boxing industry is not too concerned about that as it clearly lives off hype. Many of the comments were insane: "He's the greatest since Ali", "He's 1000x better than Fury and Joshua", "He'll go through Hrgovic in 2 rounds" etc.

 

"I found it extraordinary as he looked nothing overly special to me, certainly very beatable"

Offensively he is special. I would not be surprised if he turned out to be the quickest HW ever of his size if his speed were tested on a machine. But I thought there were too many unknowns about him, many reasons to be sceptical and some deficiencies he had shown in terms of his thinking, desire for battle and discipline already.

 

The problem with Haye is his career was smoke and mirrors. After his loss to 40+ Thompson he ducked Cunningham at cruiser, cherrypicked a title off Valuev by MD and got 10-2'd by Wlad. Then he beat Chisora (probably his best career win) and ducked Fury. Then he came back a few years later and got KO'd x2 by Bellew.

People criticise Wilder's resume but Haye's was much weaker, yet he doesn't get nearly as much criticism.