2026-09-01 08:24:01

Moses Itauma has vowed that he will “be back” after his heavyweight world title fight loss to Filip Hrgovic.

The British fighter failed in his bid to become Britain’s second-youngest heavyweight world champion after appearing to punch himself out in Saturday’s (29.08.26) IBF title bout against the Croat, but has declared that he intends to come back stronger following the first loss of his career.

Itauma, 21, wrote on social media: “It wasn’t my night, we attempted greatness and just fell short to the more experienced man.

“I want to say congratulations to Filip Hrgovic on his win. And although I never reached my desired outcome, I believe I gained experience that I’ll take to my future fights.

“God bless, take care and I’ll be back.”

Itauma’s promoter Frank Warren is confident that the pugilist will bounce back from the loss but urged his charge to avoid an immediate rematch against Hrgovic.

The Queensberry chief told talkSPORT: “I would like to see him in at least one or maybe two fights and see where we go before we go (for a rematch), but we need to see where we are.

“I was just on the phone to him. He is very disappointed, very disappointed. He knows what he should have done and where it went wrong for him but it is something we’ve got to put right. You have got to learn from it.

“He’s a very brave young man and it is now what he does and how he prepares.

“He is saying to me, ‘Can we get the rematch on?’, which is a natural reaction but I’ve told him to switch off from boxing, go chill out, spend time with the family and then come back, recharge the batteries and get to work again.

“He has got to learn from that and the corner has to learn. His team and all of us. It is all pretty raw at the moment and sore. We’ll sit down and have a debrief.

“There is going to have to be some changes and there will be some changes to where he is at, but one thing about Moses is he’s an intelligent guy, he is a nice kid, has got a very good brain on him and he’ll learn from this.”

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