Moses Itauma lost to Filip Hrgovic on Saturday in one of the biggest upsets of 2026, and now former WBA featherweight world champion Barry McGuigan has shared his thoughts on the youngster’s display.
Itauma made a ferocious and dominant start against Hrgovic, proving himself to be a level above the Croatian when it came to speed and skill, regularly landing eye-catching shots on his granite-chinned opponent.
However, when those blows were absorbed and the contest approached its second half, the superior experience of Hrgovic tipped the fight in his favour, as Itauma visibly tired and then eventually collapsed under pressure in round nine.
Speaking to Boxing News, McGuigan declared that the 21-year-old has ‘nobody to blame but himself and his coach’, for setting a pace that was too physically demanding.
“If you gas out – that is ‘hands up, I am guilty!’
“Whether that is you setting off at a phenomenal pace and you gas out, and you have tried your best and you have almost got your opponent out of there – but he didn’t. He hit Hrgovic loads, but he never looked like he was going to knock him out.”
“He ran in there and tried to get him out of there, but he couldn’t do it. At the end of the day, he set a pace that he couldn’t sustain and he gassed out, he has nobody to blame but himself and his coach [Ben Davison].”
Itauma has since expressed his desire for a rematch with the newly-crowned IBF heavyweight world champion, but it seems as though Hrgovic will instead take on Cuba’s Frank Sanchez in an attempted first defence of the belt.
