Tale of the tape
Here’s how Itauma and Hrgović measure up ahead of tonight’s main event. Itauma is the younger man by 13 years and gives away an inch and a half in height and three inches in reach, but he will enter the ring as the heavier fighter. The 21-year-old tipped the scales at 241.7lb, compared with 232.6lb for Hrgovic. The Croatian brings a significant edge in professional experience, having boxed 105 rounds to Itauma’s 31.
Key events
Donald McRae
The arena looks pretty close to full which is a positive surprise. There was speculation earlier in the week that ticket sales had been a little sluggish and when I arrived just before seven this evening they were still selling seats to people who had just walked up to the 02. This is only Moses Itauma’s 15th fight and, while his face has been plastered across London’s buses the past few weeks, he is still a 21-year-old fighter who is at the start of his ascent to elite-level boxing.
This could be the fight, against a tough and ambitious Filip Hrgović, which could mark the big breakthrough for Itauma. At the same time there is a risk that the callow prodigy might be exposed. I reckon that Itauma will be too good for Hrgović, but the atmosphere is building and there is a nice little frisson of uncertainty in the air.
Tale of the tape
Here’s how Itauma and Hrgović measure up ahead of tonight’s main event. Itauma is the younger man by 13 years and gives away an inch and a half in height and three inches in reach, but he will enter the ring as the heavier fighter. The 21-year-old tipped the scales at 241.7lb, compared with 232.6lb for Hrgovic. The Croatian brings a significant edge in professional experience, having boxed 105 rounds to Itauma’s 31.
Here’s where things stand in the order of play. Constantin Ursu has just retained his British and Commonwealth welterweight titles with an eighth-round stoppage of Ben Vaughan. The unbeaten champion was pushed hard by a game Vaughan before a severe cut over his right eyebrow brought the contest to a premature end at the O2. Ursu improves to 16-0 (7 KOs) with the TKO win.
That leaves one more undercard fight before tonight’s main event: a scheduled 12-round lightweight scrap between Sam Noakes and Denys Berinchyk.
Preamble
Hello and welcome to London’s O2 Arena, where we are counting down to one of the more intriguing heavyweight attractions of the year and, just maybe, the launch of a new era in boxing’s bellwether division.
Moses Itauma is only 21 years old, unbeaten in 14 paying fights and already being spoken about in the sort of glowing terms normally reserved for fighters who have spent years at or near the top of the division. Tonight the prodigiously gifted southpaw from Chatham can become the second-youngest heavyweight champion in history, behind only Mike Tyson, when he faces Filip Hrgović for the vacant International Boxing Federation title at the O2 Arena.
The hype is not difficult to understand. Itauma has speed uncommon for a man his size, concussive power and an ability to attack from angles that Barry Jones believes separates him from almost every other heavyweight. But for everything we have seen, there is plenty we haven’t. Itauma has boxed only 31 professional rounds. He has never been dragged into the deep waters of a difficult fight, where Andy Lee believes the questions surrounding him become less technical than psychological.
That is where Hrgović comes in. The 34-year-old Croatian has been a professional for nine years and lost only once (to Daniel Dubois in 2024). He has spent the buildup dismissing Itauma as a “delusional kid”, even suggesting that becoming champion so young could “ruin his soul”. It’s an idea Itauma has not entirely dismissed. He has spoken candidly this week about the burden of sudden fame and his desire to “start off like Mike Tyson started, but not end up how Mike Tyson ended”.
It should be mentioned the widely recognized king of the division is still Oleksandr Usyk, the unbeaten former undisputed heavyweight champion from Ukraine who relinquished his remaining world title belts in June but insists he has not retired. But with the old order beginning to clear, Itauma is ideally placed to collect the spoils and establish himself as the leading candidate to inherit Usyk’s throne when the time comes.
We’ll have round-by-round updates, key moments and instant reaction in this space. Stay with us.
Bryan will be here shortly. In the meantime here’s Donald McRae’s lookahead to tonight’s fight.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/live/2026/aug/29/moses-itauma-v-filip-hrgovic-ibf-heavyweight-championship-live
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