Frank Warren isn’t sugarcoating how painful Moses Itauma’s first career loss was, even as he insists his faith in the young heavyweight hasn’t wavered.
Itauma suffered a ninth-round stoppage loss to Filip Hrgovic in their IBF World Heavyweight title fight at The O2 in London on August 29, ending his unbeaten 15-fight run and forcing him to spend the night in the hospital for precautionary checks after being carried out on a stretcher.
Itauma dominated much of the fight with his hand speed and movement before fatigue caught up with him in the later rounds, allowing the more experienced Hrgovic to turn the tide.
Yesterday wasn’t my night. We attempted greatness and we just fell short to the more experienced man,” Itauma said.
“I want to say congratulations to Filip Hrgovic and his team on his win, and although I never reached my desired outcome, I believe I gained experience that I’ll take to my future fights.
Speaking to talkSPORT afterward, Warren admitted the loss is still raw and sore for everyone involved, comparing Itauma’s situation to other boxing greats, like Joe Louis and Wladimir Klitschko, who suffered early setbacks before going on to have legendary careers. Warren argued that how Itauma and his team respond and learn from this fight will define where he goes next.
Itauma has already asked Warren about setting up an immediate rematch, but Warren has urged him to step away from boxing for a while, recharge, and revisit the idea once he’s had time to reflect.
Warren also stopped short of guaranteeing Itauma’s return to the top level, saying it’s too early to make firm decisions and that everything depends on Itauma’s mindset once he’s ready to talk.
He’s very, very disappointed,” Warren said of Itauma.
“He knows what he should’ve done and where it went wrong for him and it’s something we’ve got to put right. We’ve got to learn from it. He was eight rounds in front on the judges’ cards and where he went wrong was every punch he was throwing was throwing with bad intentions to knockout, and the pace he fought at. He didn’t pace himself in the fight and he was just in top gear all the way through. He didn’t change down, ease off a bit, and that comes with ring craft and guile.
He didn’t use his jab enough in the later rounds of the fight which would’ve made it easier for him. Having said that, I can’t take anything away from Filip. He was strong, tough, his trainer Abel Sanchez did a fabulous job. He weathered the storm, he’s tough as old boots, and he’s the champion and God bless him and good luck to him.
“[Hrgovic’s] done extremely well and he’s obviously with Queensberry as well but I’ve got to be honest, Moses has been with us since he was 16 so that’s really where my heart was. But Filip is a great guy. But [Itauma’s] got to learn history in boxing. You look back at two generational greats for example, like Joe Louis, he went to Germany, 22 years old, he got knocked out by Schmeling and came back and became the longest reining heavyweight champion.
