Moses Itauma came up short in his quest to make history last month, suffering a shock first career defeat to Filip Hrgovic in one of the most dramatic moments of the 2026 boxing calendar. Most feel that he will bounce back well, but others have highlighted that there may be some lasting effects.
Itauma boxed well in his first foray up at the true world level, winning every round against Croatia’s Hrgovic in what was his first scheduled 12-rounder. He became just the second heavyweight to score a knockdown against the granite-chinned ‘El Animal’.
However, Itauma faded down the stretch after searching for the stoppage and, by round nine, he was more or less out on his feet, with Hrgovic then finding the shots to put the exhausted youngster away and close the show.
On his X account, Audley Harrison, Britain’s first super-heavyweight Olympic gold medalist, took no pleasure in the accuracy of his comments from June, where he warned Itauma to steer clear of world title opportunities at this point in his career. Instead, Harrison fumed that ‘a great prospect has been ruined’.
“I am not happy that I was right. You had a great prospect, a great kid, they all got caught up in the hype and they just f***ing ruined a great prospect. No way should he have been challenging for a world title that [soon].
“Okay, they went for greatness, but once you go up to that level you can’t come back down, it was too early for him. I am trying to tell people like, once he goes into the deep end, it is going to be a problem because we don’t know how he swims yet and they were all getting caught up in the hype!
“Like, come on guys! You have got to know boxing, it’s crazy. Commiserations. Well done Filip Hrgovic, we knew what he was going to do, well done!”
Itauma had requested an immediate rematch with Hrgovic, but the Zagreb-born champion looks set to move on to a first defence against Cuba’s Frank Sanchez, which could take place on home soil.
