Moses Itauma vs. Filip Hrgovic | DAZN - 29 August 2026

[Ruthless-RKO]

‘Exploit his tendencies’: Moses Itauma and Filip Hrgovic talk vacant title fight

Moses Itauma and Filip Hrgovic discuss their upcoming heavyweight clash later this month.

With Moses Itauma and Filip Hrgovic officially set to contend for the vacant IBF title on Aug. 29, DAZN releases their full face off video interview conversation between the combatants. Both fighters expressed a lot of confidence that they will be coming out on top in this matchup, and you can check out some excerpts of what both had to say below with the full video segment, as well.

Itauma on getting the Hrgovic fight
“So, after the Jermaine Franklin fight we had to kind of assess the situation and we never really had an opponent in mind. Obviously, Filip Hrgovic was ranked #2 with the WBO. It would’ve been written in the stars if Fabio would’ve beat Dubois, then Fabio would have vacated the title and me and Hrgovic could have boxed for the real world title and being a world champion at 21 would’ve been good. But obviously things didn’t align, so we’re here still fighting Filip Hrgovic.

“I just wanted a step up anyway, and Hrgovic has got a better resume than all the guys I’ve beat. I mean he’s ranked higher than me, so it’s a step up, it’s a necessary step up and it’s necessary to where I want to go…I believe I can solve Filip Hrgovic’s puzzle. In 10 weeks time, we shall see.”

Hrgovic on his motivation and thoughts about this fight
“I already achieved a lot of things and I did everything what I wanted to do but I never won the title, and that’s the one thing, of course, I want to do. So, he’s the man in front of me and I must beat him of course to achieve that dream.

“I think I’m the best opponent he faced. I think he never been in the ring until now with someone like me, with that kind of experience, endurance, toughness, power. So, let’s see how good he is. Everyone says he’s a future superstar, future Lennox Lewis. Let’s see.

“For right now I’m not impressed. I must see something more than this to see if he’s the real deal…In his boxing career and his life, everything so far was easy. And he was a youth world champion, me as well, but I had a hard journey in amateur level, WSB, and professional career I was fighting like a lion to come into this position. I come from small country where no boxing on the map. So, of course he worked hard, but his road was much easier than mine so I think he’s never been in the ring with someone like me.”

Itauma on whether he has the attributes to beat Hrgovic
“What I need is to exploit his weaknesses, to exploit his tendencies. And to exploit his tendencies I don’t need to have speed, I don’t need to have power, I don’t need have all the attributes you just said. I have a very solid team…Not only that, I got ears that listen. So, it’s going to be an interesting fight and I know Hrgovic isn’t going to back down.”

An exchange between the fighters on their respective resumes

Hrgovic: I think you didn’t have any elite fights, right, in elite levels. Straight from youth level to professional boxing and he fought no one in professional boxing. So, of course he doesn’t have experience.”

Itauma: “You’re disrespecting my opponents now. You’re disrespecting Dillian Whyte, you’re disrespecting Demsey McKean.”

Hrgovic: “White was over the hill, everyone knows that. Franklin came totally unprepared. So over the hill, old already. They were good names but far over the hill.”

Itauma: “What was you doing at 21?”

Hrgovic: “I was boxing WSB. Harder fights —”

Itauma: “And I was 20 years old and you was boxing on my undercard. Give up some props.”

Hrgovic: “If I was British, you [would’ve been] boxing on my undercard. Imagine if you didn’t come [from] Great Britain. Imagine you from Slovakia, right. Imagine if you stay in Slovakia. No one would ever heard of you, man. So you’re from Great Britain, you got everything. You was youth world champion, I was myself. But no one didn’t give a f-ck about me because I was Croatian. So it’s different. I don’t disrespect you, this is just truth.”