"It was the fatigue that got him, not the shots" - Abel Sanchez

I'm so happy someone else has pointed out the fact he's tubby. He's proof that hype makes people see what they really want to see.

I've been hearing people call him "thick" and "solid" which is nonsense, he's just overweight. He's a doughy 240lbs. Lennox Lewis and Riddick Bowe were a thick and solid 240lbs. Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois are a muscular 240lbs-250lbs. The Klitschko's were a LEAN 240lbs. Moses needs to lose 20lbs of fat and put on 10lbs of muscle.

The fact he's so lazy (and Ben Davidson is such an enabling fraud) that he's never even sparred 12 rounds probably explains his supbar body composition.

 

Once fatigue sets in it doesn't matter how good your chin is. Ray Robinson was winning on all scorecards against Joey Maxim, but he faded from fatigue and heat exhaustion. Maxim fought in the same heat but he was the more durable fighter that night, his stamina persisted and he won, handing Robinson his only loss by stoppage.

 

I don't know if it's true, but Itauma himself claims he regularly benches, squats and deadlifts super heavy weights.

 

This is how he left the ring with NO injuries and he's up 8-0 on the cards, but the first decent opponent he's faced is finally opening up on him.

How does he leave the ring when he's older, heavier, cut, injured, or down on the cards?

Absolutely pathetic.

What a con man.

Luis Santana move over. We have a new "Razzie" award to hand out.

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Hoisted up like a plus-sized baby in a diaper. Ridiculous.

It's like Hrgovic said, the kid has been pampered and spoonfed all throughout his Boxing career.

 

Hrgovic gassed badly in about 5 rounds against Dubois, a little longer against Zhang, and since then has gone 12 solid rounds against Joyce, Adeleye, and looked good stamina wise against Itauma. Itauma has plenty of time to work on pacing himself.

 

Spot on. Not because he was hurt, or injured, or tore an ACL, or had a brain bleed, or was beaten half to death ...

Nope, just tired. "Carry me."

I was willing to wait to see if he had some serious injury. Even Warren thought there must be something wrong with him, maybe a leg or knee, because he couldn't walk.

But, it was nothing. No injuries. Just tired. "I tried too hard. Carry me home."

Tell hell with that. It wasn't an eight-rounder.

I mentioned this before the fight, but the Brits have had a lot of heavyweight champs in recent years. When you have a lot of heavyweight champs, you start to assume the next guy coming up is going to be the next champ, too.

This guy is a dud. The sport is filled with hot prospects who failed miserably when they stepped up.

Mr. "Carry me out by my diaper, I can't walk because I didn't train enough" is right up there.

Next time we see this guy, he'll be even fatter. And quitting will be a lot easier. Especially when he suffers an actual injury. And they all suffer them eventually.

 

Itauma also knocked Hrgovic down. And yes, being off-balance still makes it a legit KD if it's a punch that sends you to the canvas.

In saying that though, Hrgovic is definitely a tank to have taken so much punishment in that fight. Full respect to him.

 

I hope that's sarcasm. He literally punched himself to exhaustion and had to have the towel thrown in and be waved off by the ref (who also left it far too late imo). In what world is that "quitting"?

 

Boxing should adopt a time-out rule like other sports where superior athletes rule the day. If each fighter was given three time outs per 12 rounds, it would make a much better product with the better athletes taking the day and thus giving us better match-ups down the line. We all know that Moses really won that fight except the lack of this rule. There should definitely be an asterisk by his L, if nothing else.

This is the future we should ask for from our sport.

 

The fatigue was obvious. The guy came into the fight with his usual mindset: a quick demolition of his opponent. You don't have to be a brilliant boxing analyst, and you don't even have to play any sport, to realize that when you put 100-110% into action, you expend significantly more energy than if you spread your strength to 70% over the long term.

Moses actually jumped up with some punches to give them even more power. It was plain to see.
And he tired anyway. However, he didn't suddenly collapse from exhaustion because he's in terrible shape. I completely disagree with that. He simply started slowing down significantly, and that opened up opportunities for Hrgovic.
Filip has recently started to be considered a lightweight, "quilted" guy, but he's still almost two meters tall and weighs close to 110 kg. At one point in his career, he was considered a killer, and boxers who faced him often suggested he hits incredibly hard (Molina, Richard Towers). In my opinion, it wasn't just exhaustion, but largely because Filip landed some really powerful punches at one point, which seriously damaged Moses. This is evident in the replays, especially from the shots from the audience, where you can see the force with which Moses's head snapped back after those punches. Immediately afterward, he began to stagger, and the fact that he foolishly tried to respond with all his might by punching the air contributed to his condition.

He clearly felt those punches, and they were the ones that made his legs look like "noodles."

Now one can only wonder if they chose the wrong tactics. Shouldn't they have approached the fight more calmly, secured the victory, etc. The question is whether the fight would have turned out this way. Filip, during Itauma's lulls, would have started to act. He's also a boxer who lands a lot of punches (the memorable 700 against Zhang). If Moses hadn't been constantly outpacing him with powerful, punishing punches, Filip would have opened up much more in this fight, and it would have been a more even fight. He simply couldn't handle Moses's speed.

The second issue is that Moses is an offensive machine who, until now, looked like a million bucks. That's what he's mainly good at. So would it make sense to limit him to avoid getting fired up? And would he be so great then? Jab vs. jab? He'd be hitting harder much less often?

They went all in because they underestimated the Croatian. They probably thought that, in the worst-case scenario, they'd cut him like Dubois and the fight would be stopped. But Filip, despite taking a beating, retained plenty of health for the second half of the fight. I've actually written about this. The Croatian shouldn't be kicking Moses from the start when he's significantly slower. He needs to try to take as little damage as possible in the first phase of the fight so that when the pace levels off, he can "come into the game" at his best. It turned out even better than expected. God blew him away, he wasn't completely broken and bloodied, and he retained his strength.

They overreacted by choosing the Croatian. It's a common occurrence in boxing, though not often with such resounding results, as they usually protect "golden hens" from such tomcats. However, the Croatian, as you can see, was ignored by the boxing community. He was underestimated after the Zhang fight, which was incredibly tough (which later cost JJ his entire career), and he was ignored after his loss to Dubois (which disappointed me deeply, but is equally controversial due to his fighting style and the frequent fouls they turned a blind eye to). They simply assumed he was a tough opponent to beat...
And here's an outstanding amateur who, at a young age, went to Haye's camp, trained everyone there, and then beat the crap out of them all (Towers' words).

To sum up a long post of reflections. Itauma was tired, but he didn't come out completely exhausted until the 9th round, not staggering on his feet. It's a different story that he took a serious beating in the 8th. He started taking heavy blows to his head because of this fatigue, and that was the final nail in the coffin, not just the fatigue.

Does that mean he has a soft jaw and has trouble taking punches? Absolutely not. People exaggerate the opposite. He simply took a good dozen or so hard punches, and Filip didn't give him time to catch his breath, and he didn't have time to recover. He's not a wimp. A minor scratch won't put him down. That's not the point.

 

Oh please. It's not like Moses was the guy throwing all the punches.

After nine rounds, Moses threw 416 punches and Hrgovic threw 349. And Hrgovic missed far more than Moses did, and whiffing on a punch actually drains you faster than landing.

400 punches to 350 punches isn't some insane differential after nine rounds.

By his own admission, Moses didn't train for a 12-rounder. He fought and trained exactly like he always does. And when Hrgovic started landing like Moses was, the wheels came off. Because he was actually getting punched back.

Then his legs suddenly don't work. And he can't stand. Blah, Blah, blah

Moses wasn't a late sub. He had time to train. He had the home court. The home fans. The home ref. He picked Hrgovic. And Filip wasn't a champion. He'd never won anything. But when Hrgovic didn't cave and started landing as much as Moses did, all of a sudden Moses can't walk.

A fat, 21-year-old athlete doesn't get say "I will train harder next time." He was a quitter. Guys with no injuries who are the A-side with all the sway and influence don't get to go "I tried really hard, but I'm tired now. So, carry me home."

At least they don't in the rest of the world.

Moses QUITauma. The first A-side, completely uninjured heavyweight challenger who was too fat and out of shape to leave the ring under his own power.

Even the hospital he was rushed to told him to go home.

Pathetic.

Guys who quit at 21 with no injuries aren't people you want to bank on.

He will be even fatter next time. Everyone knows it. Anyone think he comes in at 230 and fitter? Hell no.

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Adam Kownacki and Chris Arreola threw more than 2,100 punches in their 12-rounder a few years back.

Arreola threw 1,125. Kownacki threw 1,047.

And neither of those two fat boys needed to be carried out of the ring because they were so tired.

Let's not pretend like 400 punches thrown is some astronomical number.