Frank Warren has admitted that there are lessons to learn for Moses Itauma after his loss to Filip Hrgovic.
Itauma made a huge step up at the age of just 21 for his first world title shot against the already battle-hardened Hrgovic, who is no stranger to long, tough fights, going 12 rounds and facing world champions.
His only loss to date came via knockout to Daniel Dubois, but he has beaten the likes of Zhilei Zhang and knows what it takes to pace yourself for 12 rounds of action, which is where Itauma came unstuck.
Despite a superb first eight rounds in which he landed plenty of quick, heavy shots, he soon began to tire and by the ninth had not an ounce of energy left, which is how Hrgovic eventually wore him down and forced the referee to step in and stop the fight – an end that very few saw coming ahead of the first bell.
Speaking to talkSPORT Boxing, Warren admitted things will be done differently in Itauma’s camp in future.
“He’s got to learn from that, and his corner’s got to learn, all of us. It’s all pretty raw at the moment and sore, so we’ll sit down and have a debrief.
“There’s gonna have to be some changes, and there will be some changes, but one thing about Moses is he’s an intelligent guy, he’s a nice kid, he’s got a very good brain on him, he will learn from this. It was all, at the end of the day, about him and fight management.”
Itauma had never previously been past six rounds, having knocked out 12 of his 14 opponents so far, with the other two only being six-rounders early in his career. He will no doubt rebuild and come again, though a rematch with Hrgovic is unlikely.
