{"id":835510,"date":"2026-07-31T11:30:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T11:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/835510\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T11:30:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T11:30:18","slug":"oleksandr-usyk-sums-up-moses-itaumas-chances-of-passing-filip-hrgovic-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/835510\/","title":{"rendered":"Oleksandr Usyk sums up Moses Itauma’s chances of passing Filip Hrgovic ‘test’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oleksandr Usyk<\/a> has downplayed the threat of Filip Hrgovic<\/a> as he envisions Moses Itauma<\/a> retaining his status as the \u201cfuture\u201d of heavyweight boxing.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the prodigious talent has been widely hailed as a future world champion, seemingly possessing the mental and physical attributes to reign supreme in years to come.<\/p>\n

Such belief in the 21-year-old was only enhanced by his last outing, which resulted in a fifth-round stoppage of fringe contender Jermaine Franklin<\/a> in March.<\/p>\n

Now, though, Itauma is approaching his toughest test thus far, taking on the seasoned and durable Filip Hrgovic at London\u2019s O2 Arena on August 29.<\/p>\n

The Croatian has firmly cemented himself as a top 10 heavyweight, with his only loss arriving when he was stopped on cuts in round eight of his 2024 encounter with Daniel Dubois.<\/p>\n

But while many believe that Hrgovic will offer a significant challenge to Itauma, Usyk appears less convinced that the 34-year-old can pose many problems.<\/p>\n

Speaking with DAZN<\/a>, the Ukrainian effectively named Itauma as the heir to his throne and, by extension, the type of fighter who handles pressure with remarkable composure.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Hrgovic is] not a big test, but [he\u2019s] a test. Itauma, for me, is a special guy because he\u2019s very relaxed before fights [and] after fights.<\/p>\n

\u201c[He\u2019s the] future.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Usyk vacated his WBC, IBF and WBA titles<\/a> last month, he will remain the lineal heavyweight champion until he either retires or is defeated in the ring.<\/p>\n

With just one fight remaining, though, it is most likely that the next heavyweight king \u2013 possibly Itauma \u2013 will be crowned once the 39-year-old has called time on his Hall of Fame career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oleksandr Usyk has downplayed the threat of Filip Hrgovic as he envisions Moses Itauma retaining his status as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":791496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-835510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=835510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/791496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}