Heavyweight Itauma handed harsh world-title lesson

Moses Itauma was still a schoolboy when he would turn up at boxing gyms in his uniform and give seasoned professionals a hiding.

On Saturday night at the O2 Arena, the 21-year-old was finally given an education, as the Briton ran out of gas and the granite experience of Filip Hrgovic carried the Croatian to the vacant IBF heavyweight title.

The referee waved off the fight as Itauma’s corner threw in the towel in the ninth round. But for long spells, Itauma was the quicker, sharper and more assured fighter, repeatedly finding Hrgovic with the left hand and showing exactly why so many inside boxing believe he has the tools to reach the very top.

Yet what made the contest so compelling was the growing sense that, even while Itauma was winning rounds, he was drifting closer to defeat.

His mouth opened in search of air and the spring disappeared from his legs. Hrgovic, hardened by the kind of difficult nights Itauma had never experienced, simply stayed there and waited for the younger man’s body to betray him.

The sight afterwards was a sobering one as Itauma – who suffered a first defeat in his 15th pro fight – left the arena on a stretcher, before being taken to hospital.

“It’s precautionary that he’s gone to the hospital. That’s what we always do to make sure because the most important thing is the boxer’s health,” promoter Frank Warren said.

“He’s done something to his leg as well and he was quite tired. It was a high paced, fast fight for both the guys.”

The remarkable night should not be remembered as the moment Itauma was exposed as incapable of operating at world level – his boxing showed the opposite.

What it exposed was the difference between possessing world-level talent and having the conditioning, experience and ring craft required to manage a 12-round world-title fight.

It would be too simplistic – and unfair – to say Hrgovic won the fight purely through mind games, but the 34-year-old had succeeded in making the build-up uncomfortable.

Hrgovic spent fight week repeatedly attacking Itauma’s age, dismissing him as “just a kid”. As the week wore on, Itauma looked increasingly irritated and eventually lost his composure at the weigh-in, shoving Hrgovic before the Croatian responded with a slap.

Itauma prides himself on being unusually cerebral for a heavyweight. He reads psychology and self-help books, talks openly about sharpening his mind and appears to spend far more time analysing himself than most 21-year-olds.

But there is always a danger that deep thinking becomes overthinking, something Anthony Joshua has been accused of repeatedly during the latter stages of his career.

Whether the pre-fight barbs played any part or not, Itauma’s gameplan once the bell rang was clear; he wanted to end the night early.

“Someone said to me he doesn’t feel like he’d win a world title unless he knocks him out. I didn’t like that,” promoter Frank Warren said afterwards.

That mindset was understandable because it had served Itauma extraordinarily well until now. But perhaps Hrgovic had been underestimated by almost everybody – Itauma, the media, pundits, former fighters and bookmakers who installed the Briton as a heavy favourite.

Hrgovic is an Olympic bronze medallist who went 12 hard rounds with the giant Zhilei Zhang, while against Daniel Dubois – the only defeat on his record – he was leading on two of the three scorecards before the fight was stopped because of cuts.

‘El Animal’ knew what it felt like to be hurt, to become tired and to remain in a fight when things were going badly. Itauma did not.

The eighth round summed up both Itauma’s extraordinary talent and his lack of experience. He threw more punches than in any other round of the fight, pouring what remained of his energy into trying to remove a man who had already demonstrated that he was exceptionally difficult to remove.

“He was throwing too much. He was fighting like an amateur,” Hrgovic said afterwards. “I knew I needed to endure it. I need to stay there. He will get tired and I’ll get him in the later rounds.”

There are questions about the Chatham fighter’s preparation, too. Itauma – who had never gone beyond six rounds professionally – admitted before the fight that he had never even sparred 12 rounds.

His conditioning was clearly not where it needed to be for a championship fight and responsibility for that cannot rest solely with the fighter – it also falls on the experienced team entrusted with preparing him.

Itauma showed that many of the qualities which looked spectacular against lesser opposition still worked against a genuine world-level heavyweight.

He proved he can take a punch – there was no single blow that suddenly revealed a fragile chin. His hand speed troubled Hrgovic and he made the Zagreb fighter look slow.

So with those positives in mind, where does he go from here?

“Don’t give up. Don’t lose confidence. Get a few easy fights, easy wins. Build again and learn off these mistakes. You can’t box like an amateur. It’s a 12-round fight, you need to pace yourself,” was Hrgovic’s advice.

Warren remains convinced that Itauma is one of the most exceptional talents he has encountered, pointing towards two-time world champion Dubois as a prime example of a heavyweight who rebuilt successfully after painful setbacks.

But British boxing has seen the other side of that story too, of course – where fighters like David Price were once regarded as the country’s next great heavyweight hope before successive defeats damaged an aura they never fully recovered.

Audiences will now scrutinise Itauma’s every move, his breathing and how he paces a fight. That vulnerability may actually make him a more compelling fighter to follow.

The aura of untouchable perfection is gone. The schoolboy has been taught a lesson and now we will find out what he learns from it.