MOSES ITAUMA VS FILIP HRGOVIC - SIGNED!!! AUGUST 29 | O2 ARENA | LONDON

[00:00:00]Welcome to Hatman Strikes Back daily boxing news. You can see the headline on screen right here. This is from Sky Sports. It says Moses Ituma to fight Filip Hrgović in high-risk heavyweight bout in August as British boxer puts unbeaten record on the line. Moses Ituma and Filip Hrgović set to fight on Saturday, August 29 at London's O2 Arena. Press conference expected to take place next week. Ituma beat Jermaine Franklin in March while Hrgović defeated Dave Allen last month. Now, this has not yet been confirmed by Frank Warren. At the time of recording this video, it hasn't been confirmed by the fighters either. But for Sky to come out with something like this, it's not that they can't be wrong, but they're very much in the know when it comes to the world of sports. I suspect this will turn out to be accurate. Now, there's a lot of people, particularly in Britain, but even in America, who have been calling for Moses Ituma to step up. They've been dissatisfied with his opposition for his last few fights, and so they want to see him in there with someone who can actually test him. Someone that's going to turn up to win. Somebody that has a record of real durability, and somebody that has some actual fighting ability.

[00:01:05]Someone that's shown that fighting ability at a relatively high level in the heavyweight division. Filip Hrgović ticks all those boxes. But, you know how it is, there's always going to be some people out there complaining that even this is not good enough. That Hrgović is rubbish. There's basically people preparing to give Ituma no credit whatsoever regardless of how he performs in this fight. Some people have got it in for him for some strange reason.

[00:01:27]Perhaps there are several different reasons. Some people have just got these rose-tinted glasses on, and they want to bash all the new fighters and say they couldn't have held a candle to the fighters of old. Some people are just stuck in that headspace. And so, I remind those people that Mike Tyson wasn't fighting anyone as good as Filip Hrgović in his 15th fight. I can assure you, neither was Wladimir Klitschko, an Olympic gold medalist. He fought a guy who was 4-13-1 in his 15th fight, Klitschko. Go look it up. Klitschko fought a guy in his 15th fight with a record of four wins, 13 losses and one draw. And he had way more experience than Moses Itama in the amateurs. Lennox Lewis fought somebody decent in his 15th fight in Gary Mason, but you could very reasonably argue that Hrgovic is at least as good as Gary Mason, if not better. So, if you're bashing Hrgovic as an opponent for Itama, knock it off. You sound ridiculous. This is a perfectly acceptable and in fact very good step up for his 15th professional fight. Hrgovic has been in there with the likes of Daniel Dubois. Yeah, he got stopped in that fight, but he was doing very well early on and the stoppage came by a cut.

[00:02:33]He didn't get knocked out. He wasn't out on his feet like Fabio Wardley, unable to defend himself. No, his cuts were so bad that the ref on the advice of the doctor decided to stop it. He also fought and beat Zhilei Zhang. It was a very close fight, but he beat him. More recently, he beat Joe Joyce, David Adalei, and in his last fight, of course, he beat Dave Allen, which was just a tune-up. That was never going to be a difficult fight for him. But, he was one of the few people to actually stop Dave Allen, and in fact, he stopped Allen earlier than anybody else ever has, despite not being a real concussive puncher. I want to say Filip Hrgovic is an average puncher in the heavyweight division, but he's tough, he throws a lot of shots, he's relatively accurate, his stamina has improved a lot, and also, he paces himself a lot better under Abel Sanchez. I don't know if they're still together or if there's some type of issue there. I hope they're still together because, as I say, I think Hrgovic has improved his fitness under Sanchez's guidance. And it's not like his fitness was bad to begin with, he just wasn't pacing himself well. Now, he paces himself better and he appears to be fitter as well, courtesy of that altitude training in Big Bear. He's a tall guy, 6'6. He's aggressive, he's very confident. So, this will be something different to anything Itama's faced so far as a professional. And I'm very intrigued to see how Itama deals with him because understand the benchmark here, folks. Daniel Dubois, the current WBO heavyweight champion, a far more experienced pro than Moses Itauma, took eight rounds to get rid of Hrgović. And again, he only stopped him on cuts, never dropped him. And it's not like Hrgović has got worse since that fight. If anything, he's got better.

[00:04:04]He's still very much in his prime. So, if Itauma goes in there and does a better job than Daniel Dubois, folks, he needs to get a hell of a lot of credit.

[00:04:13]And if he goes in there and doesn't deal with Hrgović inside eight rounds, is maybe extended beyond that or the distance, that's no shame for a fighter with only 14 pro bouts going in. Daniel Dubois early on in his career was taken the distance by Kevin Johnson, a fighter nowhere near as good as Filip Hrgović.

[00:04:30]And if Itauma were to be taken the distance or go a lot of rounds, that'd be good for him. It would help his development. He needs experience. So, I like this fight. I'm glad it's been signed. As far as I'm concerned, it's the ideal opponent for Itauma at this stage of his career. Anyone who complains about this is a weirdo.

[00:04:47]Anyway, let me know what you guys think in the comment section below. Don't forget to like and share this video.

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[00:04:54]I'll catch you on the next one. I'm out.