Filip Hrgovic defeats Moses Itauma for vacant IBF heavyweight title

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Moses Itauma (left) with Frank Warren ahead of the vacant IBF World Heavyweight title bout against Filip Hrgovic at The O2 Arena, London. Picture date: Saturday August 29, 2026. (Photo by Steven Paston/PA Images via Getty Images) | PA Images via Getty Images Following his dramatic stoppage loss to Filip Hrgovic over the weekend, Moses Itauma released a short message to the public on the fight before promoter Frank Warren joined talkSPORT to discuss what transpired and where things go from here. Starting with Itauma, he shared some of these words on his loss. “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.” With Warren then joining the show to talk about all the goings on, here some of what he had to say on his prized heavyweight getting derailed. “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. “If you look at Wladimir Klitschko…he run out of gas [against Lamont Brewster] and got beat and went on to become a generational great…Even look at Filip Hrgovic, got beat by Daniel Dubois, second half of that fight Daniel was on top and he’s come back and done what he’s had to do. “So, he’s got to learn from that, and the corner’s got to learn, his team, all of us. It’s all pretty raw at the moment and sore. So, we’ll sit down and have to have a debrief and there will have to be some changes and there will be some changes, and we’ll see where he’s at. One thing about Moses, he’s an intelligent guy, he’s a nice kid, got a very good brain on him, he will learn from this.”

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Frank Warren doesn’t deny that Moses Itauma’s loss was painful.