Moses Itauma Discusses Filip Hrgovic Fight: 'We're On Now'

Moses Itauma has landed a good opponent in Filip Hrgovic, with their fight set for this August. Speaking to talkSPORT about the fight and bringing it all together, Itauma shared some thoughts on how he rates his upcoming opponent.

Itauma on how he views this fight with Hrgovic and how it came to be: “I just focus on sticking to the game plan and if it leads to a knockout, it leads to a knockout. If it don’t, it don’t. So I’m not really too focused on [getting the KO] but we’ll see. It was actually going to be — so I’m ranked #1 with the WBO, he’s ranked #2, and had Fabio [Wardley] would’ve won he would’ve relinquished the title and me and Hrgovic could’ve fought for that real world title so I could’ve been a champion at 21. But we didn’t get that accolade but the Hrgovic fight still stands so I’m happy I got that. I didn’t think that the fight was going to happen until like maybe last week or so because we proposed the fight to him and I kept asking every single day ‘has he signed, has he signed, has he signed?’ Never signed, so we started looking at other opponents and then it was like maybe the end of last week he was like ‘actually I want the bout agreement’ so I was like we’re on now.”

On how he rates Hrgovic: “I think he’s very good and I personally think he’s one of the best of the crops…The guy’s achieved a lot so I guess the good thing in boxing is I can claim them achievements, if that makes sense. So if Filip Hrgovic would’ve done all these great things, but if I’m able to do a number on him then people are going to say ‘yeah, Hrgovic is good but did you see what Moses Itauma did to him?’ So it’s just a respect thing and kind of boost my ego.”

On if there’s anyone out there he fears fighting: “Boxing is for me a puzzle and with the right preparation I don’t think there’s a puzzle I can’t solve. So I wouldn’t necessarily say I fear anyone, it’s just there are fights out there that might be easier than others.”