Moses Itauma will be taking a huge step up when he takes on Filip Hrgovic later this year.
Itauma is one of the most exciting heavyweights on the planet. He has very quickly risen through the ranks thanks to his lightning-quick hands and considerable punching power.
To date, he has knocked out 12 of his 14 opponents, with just one of those 12 men taking him beyond the second round. That was American Jermaine Franklin, who had previously gone 12 rounds with both Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte, but was stopped in the fifth by Itauma back in March.
He has long been hunting down a world title and will take a big step towards that when he fights Hrgovic, who is well ranked with both the IBF and WBA .
Ahead of the fight at London’s O2 Arena on August 29, speaking to Fight Hub TV, Hrgovic claimed he has had a much harder route to where he is than Itauma, who he feels has been given many more opportunities.
“I respect all my opponents and all fighters but the way I see it it’s like he went from winning Youth World Championships, which I won as well and in like 10, 14 fights, he’s becoming like a superstar.
“I feel like he got everything put on the table, he didn’t sacrifice a lot for that position where he is now. I think my path was much, much harder. I work so hard to get into this position and I feel like everything that he has achieved was given.
“Of Course he works hard, he trains every day, but it’s not the same kind of struggle that I went through. So I respect my path much more than his, but we’ll see. We’ll see on August 29th how good is he. Maybe he’s a real deal, maybe he’s not, we’ll see.”
Itauma is widely considered to be the future of the division, but Hrgovic has only lost once, to Daniel Dubois back in June 2024, and has always maintained he was not at his best going into that fight. He has since beaten Joe Joyce, David Adeleye and Dave Allen, so will provide the toughest test yet for Itauma come August.
