Moses Itauma vs Filip Hrgovic: Heavyweight Title Showdown
Moses Itauma has heard it all week. The jabs, the sneers, the promise from Filip Hrgovic that he will “smash the kid” and “send him back to high school”.
He is not biting.
On Saturday night at the O2 Arena, the 21-year-old southpaw from Chatham walks into the biggest moment of his young career with the vacant IBF heavyweight title on the line – the belt Oleksandr Usyk has left behind. Win, and Itauma (14-0, 12 KOs) becomes the second-youngest heavyweight world champion in history.
He insists that piece of history is a sideshow.
“I am not trying to become the second youngest heavyweight champion of the world, I am trying to beat Filip Hrgovic,” he said, ice-cold amid the noise. “My sole focus is Hrgovic. If I ain’t going to beat Hrgovic, it doesn’t matter about the world title and it doesn’t matter about the noise or nothing. My job is to be victorious on fight night. I am ready to rock and roll.”
The veteran hunter vs the young contender
Across from him stands a very different presence. Hrgovic is 34, an Olympic bronze medallist, a hardened contender with a 20-1 record and 15 knockouts. He has dismissed the hype around Itauma all week and dialled up the needle again on Thursday.
“I think he is a kid, he is not mature enough and I think I am the man,” Hrgovic declared. “I am a much better age, much more experience and yeah, that is it. No mind games. God willing you know I will beat him, I’ll smash the kid on Saturday and send him back to high school.”
There was no subtle psychology, no elaborate trash talk. Just blunt force confidence.
“I am just telling you facts. I am not playing any games. I just tell you what I think in the moment. Like I said, I am not so smart to play these mind games,” he added.
If the Croatian was looking for a reaction, he did not get one.
Asked whether the barbs had got under his skin, Itauma shrugged them off with the same ease he has brushed aside most of his opponents.
“Na, man. At the end of the day talk is cheap,” he replied. “He has just got schoolboy banter and that’s it. You’ve got to keep rolling.”
A fight he chased
This is not a matchup foisted on a prospect too soon. Itauma wanted it. He chased it.
“This fight is what I wanted. I asked Queensberry for so long,” he said. “I think it is a style match-up I reckon I can thrive on, the pressure I can thrive on and it is just waiting to fight.
“Obviously the world title is an achievement and an accolade. And that is a plus one, but my sole focus is Hrgovic.”
That is the split-screen heading into Saturday: a veteran convinced youth will crumble, and a young contender who has built his entire camp around one man, not one belt.
Praise from a prince
The hype around Itauma has not only come from promoters and highlight reels. Prince Naseem Hamed, never shy with an opinion, has gone as far as to say the 21-year-old is a “million times better” than Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury and can become the best of all time.
Words like that can warp a young fighter’s perspective. Itauma is trying to keep them at arm’s length.
“Obviously it’s good but when I hear things like that, I kind of have to put it to the back of my mind,” he said. “I have such a long way to go in the sport of boxing, but of course I appreciate it from an all-time great like Prince Naseem Hamed.”
The respect is there. So is the refusal to be carried away.
‘Same script. Different story.’
For all the talk of legacy and age gaps, Itauma boils Saturday down to something brutally simple.
“The perfect performance? It would be go a couple of rounds and finish the job,” he said. “Same script. Different story.”
Hrgovic believes the story ends with a lesson for the “kid”. Itauma believes it ends with his hand raised and a world title around his waist.
The O2 will decide which of them is about to be proved wrong.
