Filip Hrgovic walked into the O2 Arena in London on Saturday night as a heavy underdog. He walked out as IBF heavyweight champion of the world.
According to a report by BBC Sport, Hrgovic stopped Moses Itauma in the ninth round after the young Briton's corner threw in the towel, ending one of the most remarkable reversals in recent heavyweight boxing history. Itauma, just 21 years old, had to be helped out of the arena on a stretcher and received medical attention before leaving.
Itauma had been an overwhelming favourite heading into the fight. He had torn through his first 14 professional opponents and had been widely discussed as the next great heavyweight. A victory would have made him the second-youngest world champion in the division's history. Instead, his inexperience proved to be his undoing.
The fight began the way most people expected. Itauma came out with real intent, landing straight lefts from his southpaw stance and controlling the early rounds. In the second, a right hook knocked Hrgovic off-balance and his glove touched the canvas. The crowd at the O2 roared. Oasis star Noel Gallagher and boxing legend Prince Naseem Hamed watched from ringside as the crowd gasped at almost every Itauma punch, whether it landed or not.
But the signs of trouble emerged quickly. By the end of the third round, Itauma was already breathing heavily. He had boxed just 26 professional rounds before this night, and the accumulated output was beginning to show. Hrgovic, an Olympic bronze medallist whose only previous professional defeat had come against Daniel Dubois, absorbed everything and waited.
The Croatian had entered the arena to a wall of boos, then watched as the mood inside the building flipped when Itauma emerged to a huge roar. The two men had not been friendly during fight week. Itauma had shoved Hrgovic at one point. Hrgovic slapped him back. The crowd had made its allegiances clear long before the first bell.
As the rounds wore on, Hrgovic began landing heavier shots. Itauma took them and fired back, but the volume of his output had drained him. He continued to throw combinations, but his legs began to betray him. By the ninth, Itauma could barely stand. His legs were unsteady, his body swaying. His corner stopped it.
Hrgovic did not seem surprised by how events unfolded. "From the first round, I saw his gassing out," he said after the fight. "He started fast. I knew he was going to gas out. I knew when my chance came I needed to push. That is what I did."
He also offered measured praise for the man he had just beaten. "He is the best I have been in the ring with, but he needs more experience," Hrgovic said. "I knew I was losing the round, but I knew that I had the pace in my favour. He needs more experience, but he is one of a kind."
Itauma had never really been tested on the chin before Saturday night, and questions about that had circulated before the fight. He answered some of them, taking Hrgovic's heaviest punches and responding. But the pace he set in the early rounds proved unsustainable over nine rounds against a durable, experienced opponent who had been to the highest levels of the sport both as an amateur and a professional.
Hrgovic, wearing the red and white checks of Croatia, now holds the IBF heavyweight title and has positioned himself as a significant force in a crowded division.
