Tyson Fury has offered his thoughts on the “shocking” outcome of Moses Itauma getting stopped in nine rounds by veteran Filip Hrgovic.
The pair collided at London’s O2 Arena on Saturday, with Itauma looking set to become the youngest world heavyweight champion since Mike Tyson dethroned Trevor Berbick in 1986.
He had, after all, built a considerable lead after scoring a second-round knockdown and dominating practically all of their exchanges.
The 21-year-old was clearly becoming increasingly fatigued, though, and after attempting to get his man out of there in round eight, he was seemingly running on empty.
Taking advantage of this, Hrgovic found a sudden surge of energy and delivered a sustained onslaught, eventually urging referee Howard Foster to draw a halt in round nine.
As a result, the Croatian became his country’s first-ever world heavyweight champion by claiming the IBF title, which was vacated by Oleksandr Usyk in June.
With it coming as a major upset, however, Fury has highlighted the drama of heavyweight boxing by reminding us of Anthony Joshua’s surprising two-round battle with Kristian Prenga.
Speaking with ESNEWS, ‘The Gypsy King’ reflected on how Prenga was able to score two knockdowns, only to get stopped in the second round of their July encounter.
“It’s heavyweight boxing; anything can happen. Just because a guy got put down by a bum [Prenga] doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen to any one of us. Of course it can – it’s boxing.
“Take a look at the next future world champion tonight – he got beat. Moses Itauma – he got stopped in nine rounds. It can happen to anyone … It was shocking.”
While Joshua’s experience with Prenga proved vastly different to that of Itauma’s with Hrgovic, both fights nonetheless reflect the uncertainty of boxing.
