{"id":874254,"date":"2026-08-30T21:02:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T21:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/874254\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T21:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T21:02:09","slug":"moses-itauma-releases-first-statement-after-devastating-filip-hrgovic-ko-defeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/874254\/","title":{"rendered":"Moses Itauma releases first statement after devastating Filip Hrgovic KO defeat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Moses Itauma has sent a message to Filip Hrgovic and fans following his defeat in London this weekend.<\/p>\n

The rising heavyweight star was dealt the first loss of his career<\/a> at the O2 as he challenged for the vacant IBF heavyweight world title. Despite a spectacular start, where he showcased incredible speed and agility, Itauma tired down the stretch and looked out on his feet by the ninth round.<\/p>\n

Hrgovic, who showed one of the best chins in the business to get that far, took advantage and forced a stoppage from referee Howard Foster. The Croatian \u2013 now the first ever heavyweight world champion from the nation \u2013 said post-fight that Itauma is the best fighter he has come up against, and noted that his lack of experience played a major part in the result.<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking on social media, Itauma congratulated Hrgovic, took positives from the defeat and vowed to return.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, yesterday wasn\u2019t my night. We attempted greatness and just fell short to the more experienced man. I want to say congratulations to Filip Hrgovic on the win, and although I never reached my desired outcome, I believe I gained experience that I\u2019ll take to my future fights.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to thank the fans, in and outside the arena. You guys made it a little bit more special and a little bit more electrified than I expected. It was a f***ing good fight, and I want to thank Queensberry and DAZN for putting this show on. God bless, take care, and I\u2019ll be back.\u201d<\/p>\n

How long the 21-year-old now spends out of the ring remains to be seen, but time is on his side for a major return and successful career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Moses Itauma has sent a message to Filip Hrgovic and fans following his defeat in London this weekend.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":874255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-874254","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\/874254","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=874254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/874255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=874254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=874254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=874254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}