Moses Itauma vs. Filip Hrgović & Sam Noakes vs. Denys Berinchyk + Nelson Hysa vs. Thomas Narmo RBR.

I have to say, I hate the heavyweight division, largely full of a bunch of ogres and big lads with bad conditioning. We had about ten years of people saying Tyson Fury was technically amazing, he's just big, that's his main asset, he was a genetic and nandralone powered freak, a big ageing ogre, of course he's going to do well if he can use his hands but he's hardly a heavyweight Pernell Whittaker.

 

Did I miss something here? For 8 rounds he made Hrgovic look ordinary, then simply ran out of gas, and was still throwing when he could barely stand.

Happened with Haye against Thompson, and plenty of others before and after that went on to dominate. Might just be the best thing to happen to him – he got the rounds he needed, realised the hard way in the trenches that he's not a 12-round fighter yet, but the skill and talent is undeniable.

Maybe time to change trainer, but there was nothing in that performance to say he would not rule the division eventually.

Edit: No better praise than what Hrgovic gave him post-fight.

 

His trainer should say 'no' for sure. Davison likes the limelight too much though.

So much for being the conditioning guru - this puts paid to "Boxercise Ben" for sure.

Also credit to Hrgovic for being a classy winner given the build-up. It went 100% as he predicted all along, between the importance of a 'chin', being able to go long and experience counting for more than 'power and accuracy'.

Final thought - people comparing Itauma to Price, Haye, etc... there's a bit of me thinking he's another Anthony Yarde.

 

And credit to Itauma for going out like that, he was never chucking it. You could see towards the end of the 2nd-last round, his head was going as much as his body. Not really sure where he was but throwing anyway.

 

Thought it showed Itauma is very very good.

Inexperience/nativity cost him.

Also Ben Davidson training world class fighters is a complete joke.

 

Yup, he's a warrior, went out on his shield. You can't teach it, you either got it or you don't. Teddy Atlas called it the "Chamber of Truth."

Shame he's no longer training fighters, because like you said, unfortunately Ben is what he is.

Edit: Well, maybe Atlas could teach it and get you through, like he did Moorer and others at times.

 

Going back to Itauma, seen this too many times in my times watching boxing.

Young hyped up undefeated fight favourite yet to be really tested "star" gets beat.

Khan v Prescott
Haye v Thompson
Bruno v Bonecrusher
Dubois v Joyce
Joyce v Zhang
Bellew v Cleverly (at LHW, Bellew won the re-match at CW)

Just a few off the top of my head.

It happens. All bar Joyce came back to win a World Title.

 

Itauma had beaten McKean (poop) Whyte (poop and finished) and Frankin (Top 40, durable but thats it) as his 3 main wins.

Need more and better than these 3 puddings as your best 3 wins before fighting for a World Title.

As least he can now fight minus the ridiculous hype.

 

You're absolutely correct, but this is what bothers me about boxing. It's not a sport that finds and honours levels, it's a promotional vehicle.

Several of the above were manoeuvred into world titles. The aftermath of Joyce-Dubois kind of showed how it works, Joyce won and ended up worse off even in the short run, Dubois somehow found a route to a shot just like that other Warren favourite, Yarde, always did.

Warren is a genius promoter in finding routes to titles but it doesn't mean his boxers get any better. That being said, in hindsight the Dubois win over Hrgovic has aged very well and there's no doubt Warren will try for that again at some point.

 

Absolute nonsense.

 

For me he’s almost mirroring AJ.

Battered everybody on the way up then the second he realised he couldn’t just blow his biggest test in Hrgovic out, like Joshua realised with Klitschko, he didn’t have the experience or ring IQ to change plan. The only difference is Klitschko allowed Joshua to get his second wind whereas Hrgovic capitalised.

 

Davison has never had Itauma spar 12 rounds. Absolutely mental.

 

Easy me to sit here this morning and say this but like when Big George punched himself out v Ali it was actually a more extreme version last night. It was the thought going through my head the two rounds before Ituama unravelled, he emptied the tank, inexperience and looked shocked he couldn't stop Hgrovic.

Ituama was way more accurate than George was tht night v Ali arm shots and trying yo land anywhere.

Hgrovic was simply riding a hellacious assault, caught flush and hard around everywhere that would of scrambled a lot of HW equilibriums shots behind the ear, uppercuts and some tremendous blows to the chin, brave man.

 

Probably correct mate.

But I'd say even sparring 12 as you know is done at a pace under controlled conditions not putting your foot on the pedal every round.

Davison simply didn't give Ituama his best chance of winning as he didn't give the correct instructions before the fight about pacing a fight.
Over the years I've thought some trainers get too much of the blame when a fighter loses but last night he wrote his own P45, Frank Warren could see what was happening, awfully poor cornerwork.

 

I know, the guy was asking about knockdowns though.