Round-by-Round: Moses Itauma vs. Filip Hrgovic - 29 August 2026

[Ruthless-RKO]

AJ fell apart pretty quick in Ruiz 1.

Different reasons, but stamina and offensive confidence never was the same after that.

That was an equilibrium shot.

Gets everyone and anyone.

Yes but he was still never the same after.

No he wasn’t.

[keithmoonhangover]

How does Davison keep getting these gigs? He’s fvcking useless.

Why does Davison get blamed every single time? I can’t think of another trainer in boxing who gets held responsible for every bad performance like he does. Meanwhile Andy Lee gets praised constantly despite not having a genuinely top-level win since Parker beat Zhang in March 2024 — and he actually got outsmarted by Billy f...ing Nelson.

Davison gets blamed because he’s an idiot.

Itauma didn’t need to try & knock Hrgovic out every round.

Just keep doing enough to bank the rounds & if the KO comes it comes. He should’ve been in a position where Hrgovic was having to come forward & take risks to win the fight.

Stupid tactics tonight, stupid tactics against Dubois with Wardley, stupid tactics with Joshua against Dubois.

I don’t know what the jibe at Billy is about. Look what he did with Ricky Burns. If you give him Davison’s fighters I bet he would’ve done a better job

I've said it before and I'll say it again...... Davison is a good trainer, but a terrible corner man.

[Kilburn]

Hrg has had higher outputs in previous fights. There were rounds tonight where he did nothing for 2 minutes

And yet he still looked knackered himself.

I wish Hrgovic well but I suspect all the top heavyweights are licking their lips right now.

Let's not forget he gave Dubois hell for most of their fight. Hrg IS a top heavy now.

It was a hectic fight but Hrgovic never visibly hurt or discouraged Dubois at any point. Dubois beat the crap out of him in the end.

No sour grapes from me tonight, I predicted and hoped Moses would win. But his cardio was way off the mark. Hrgovic did his job well but I can’t see why anyone would see it as an impressive win.

[ScottDetonator]

I’m not gonna credit Foster. Cus even at the end, he still tried to give Moses all the time. He even separated them to the point of letting Moses find his feet again.

He was forced to stop it by the corner.

That last KD though, had the towel not come in, he wouldn’t have been able to beat the count imo

Howard stopped it before the towel came in

[Ruthless-RKO]

I’m not gonna credit Foster. Cus even at the end, he still tried to give Moses all the time. He even separated them to the point of letting Moses find his feet again.

He was forced to stop it by the corner.

That last KD though, had the towel not come in, he wouldn’t have been able to beat the count imo

Howard stopped it before the towel came in

At that point he had no choice.

The last break up. He noticed Ben with the towel. Gave him a chance to throw it in.. but Ben held off.. so he had to allow it to continue.

[Heldenjaeger]

How does Davison keep getting these gigs? He’s fvcking useless.

Why does Davison get blamed every single time? I can’t think of another trainer in boxing who gets held responsible for every bad performance like he does. Meanwhile Andy Lee gets praised constantly despite not having a genuinely top-level win since Parker beat Zhang in March 2024 — and he actually got outsmarted by Billy f...ing Nelson.

Davison gets blamed because he’s an idiot.

Itauma didn’t need to try & knock Hrgovic out every round.

Just keep doing enough to bank the rounds & if the KO comes it comes. He should’ve been in a position where Hrgovic was having to come forward & take risks to win the fight.

Stupid tactics tonight, stupid tactics against Dubois with Wardley, stupid tactics with Joshua against Dubois.

I don’t know what the jibe at Billy is about. Look what he did with Ricky Burns. If you give him Davison’s fighters I bet he would’ve done a better job

That assumes Itauma can just flick a switch and become a guy who calmly banks rounds. His whole game is built around explosiveness, feints and making the other man hesitant to throw because of what might come back. Once that threat fades, there isn’t much of a second layer there yet — and he doesn’t have the defence to just drop the pace, sit in range and safely nick rounds.

You can’t give Davison ownership of every defeat and none of the wins. At some point the fighter’s own limitations and decisions have to exist too.

Meanwhile Andy Lee has basically zero credible wins in the last two years and a string of defeats in important fights, but because he talks well and seems like a nice guy nobody seems remotely interested in blaming him for anything.

[sweetmagee]

Struggling to think of a fight I've seen where a fighters stamina vanished like that. Really odd.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Struggling to think of a fight I've seen where a fighters stamina vanished like that. Really odd.

Literally.. was very strange.

[hhaehre]

I think Hrg benefited greatly from Moses having very poor cardio for a 12 round fight, rather than this being some sort of tactical master stroke.

I think the rope-a-dope tactic will continue to be Itauma’s flaw if he refuses to pace himself.

Moses’ cardio wasn’t “very poor”, he just kept naively trying to force the stoppage.

Anyone that watched the Benn-Watson or Haye-Thompson bouts will surely appreciate Itauma’s youthful exuberance that resulted in his inability to pace himself.

That said, if Moses has to drop the pace to only 60% of his normal rate, to learn from his painful “gassing out” lesson, then he'll instantly be regarded by his peers as a much more beatable fighter.

It would be one think if his early rounds pace was blistering, but it was merely brisk. He really needs to be able to fight at a good pace for more than 4 rounds.

[lookingaround87]

Struggling to think of a fight I've seen where a fighters stamina vanished like that. Really odd.

He was starting to struggle from the 3rd round. He just put so much into the shots and was demoralized from Hrgovic not flinching.

[Perkin Warbeck]

Struggling to think of a fight I've seen where a fighters stamina vanished like that. Really odd.

It wasn't just his stamina, Hrgovic landed some hard flush punches in the 9th.

[hhaehre]

Struggling to think of a fight I've seen where a fighters stamina vanished like that. Really odd.

It looked like Ray Robinsons heat stroke. Shavers used to fade to that kind of exhaustion late in his career, but it was a much more gradual process than this.

[mickey1975]

And yet he still looked knackered himself.

I wish Hrgovic well but I suspect all the top heavyweights are licking their lips right now.

Let's not forget he gave Dubois hell for most of their fight. Hrg IS a top heavy now.

It was a hectic fight but Hrgovic never visibly hurt or discouraged Dubois at any point. Dubois beat the crap out of him in the end.

No sour grapes from me tonight, I predicted and hoped Moses would win. But his cardio was way off the mark. Hrgovic did his job well but I can’t see why anyone would see it as an impressive win.

He beat Itauma. That alone is massively impressive.

[Miguello]

Itauma should fight Adeleye

[handsofstone]

Anyone who knows boxing knows Itauma will come good

[Eolaithe]

I think Hrg benefited greatly from Moses having very poor cardio for a 12 round fight, rather than this being some sort of tactical master stroke.

I think the rope-a-dope tactic will continue to be Itauma’s flaw if he refuses to pace himself.

Moses’ cardio wasn’t “very poor”, he just kept naively trying to force the stoppage.

Anyone that watched the Benn-Watson or Haye-Thompson bouts will surely appreciate Itauma’s youthful exuberance that resulted in his inability to pace himself.

That said, if Moses has to drop the pace to only 60% of his normal rate, to learn from his painful “gassing out” lesson, then he'll instantly be regarded by his peers as a much more beatable fighter.

It would be one think if his early rounds pace was blistering, but it was merely brisk. He really needs to be able to fight at a good pace for more than 4 rounds.

Based on my interpretation of your thoughts, you are suggesting that Itauma has a shallow gas tank, which means that if he drops his usual fighting pace even slightly, then he becomes a much easier fighter to beat.

If that's what you're saying, then I agree.

[Miguello]

Struggling to think of a fight I've seen where a fighters stamina vanished like that. Really odd.

He started gassing quite early, his fighting style is unsustainable for a 12 rounder unless he makes big compromises. I think there will be massive question marks around him now that Hrgovic has showed other fighters the blueprint.

[KiwiRider]

I think Hrg benefited greatly from Moses having very poor cardio for a 12 round fight, rather than this being some sort of tactical master stroke.

Hrg looked very poor to me as a newly crowned world heavyweight champion.

Hrg has had higher outputs in previous fights. There were rounds tonight where he did nothing for 2 minutes

And yet he still looked knackered himself.

I wish Hrgovic well but I suspect all the top heavyweights are licking their lips right now.

Oh definitely, it was the easiest HW belt to win in years, which also says a bit about Itauma.

[2520386]

The body shots really did Moses in. He was exhausted and took some heavy digs to the body, by the end he was visibly afraid to let Hrgovic close. His head and his legs were gone. Will be interested to hear how he is after the hospital visit. Great win for the big Croatian. Classy in victory.

[Eolaithe]

Anyone who knows boxing knows Itauma will come good

Maybe you’re right, but Itauma was marketed as the modern-day version of the prime version of ‘Iran’ Mike Tyson, the future dominant undisputed world heavyweight champion, and a dead-cert future hall-of-famer.

I feel that no one on planet earth believes this to be the case right now, don’t you agree?

[Coco]

Moses can definitely come again, as long as it hasn't ruined him mentally.

Dubois has come back from far worse more than once

[hhaehre]

I think the rope-a-dope tactic will continue to be Itauma’s flaw if he refuses to pace himself.

Moses’ cardio wasn’t “very poor”, he just kept naively trying to force the stoppage.

Anyone that watched the Benn-Watson or Haye-Thompson bouts will surely appreciate Itauma’s youthful exuberance that resulted in his inability to pace himself.

That said, if Moses has to drop the pace to only 60% of his normal rate, to learn from his painful “gassing out” lesson, then he'll instantly be regarded by his peers as a much more beatable fighter.

It would be one think if his early rounds pace was blistering, but it was merely brisk. He really needs to be able to fight at a good pace for more than 4 rounds.

Based on my interpretation of your thoughts, you are suggesting that Itauma has a shallow gas tank, which means that if he drops his usual fighting pace even slightly, then he becomes a much easier fighter to beat.

If that's what you're saying, then I agree.

Yes, his early pace is fast, but not super fast. I don't know why he gassed so hard, either he just doesn't have the cardio, or he is incredibly tense in there.

[Grilling Machine]

How many of you won money of big Phil??

Itauma just started to blow a bit there [end of R2]. He'll recover in the break, but still.

Gutted I didn't!

Hrg's value was fantastic by fair-fight standards, I just couldn't look past Foster. Had it been Steve Gray I'd have probably chanced it.

Big credit to Hrg for not giving him an excuse, underselling Itauma's offence with his chin and grit.

[mickey1975]

Moses can definitely come again, as long as it hasn't ruined him mentally.

Dubois has come back from far worse more than once

One of DDD's biggest strengths is his mindset. He's immune from being mentally scarred by defeat.

[keithmoonhangover]

Anyone who knows boxing knows Itauma will come good

Only against selected opposition. I said it after the Franklin fight, Moses can't fight at a fast pace and tonight proved that. He's a busted flush.