{"id":910153,"date":"2026-09-26T08:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T08:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/910153\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T08:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T08:38:09","slug":"filip-hrgovic-names-the-hardest-opponent-in-the-heavyweight-division","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/910153\/","title":{"rendered":"Filip Hrgovic names the hardest opponent in the heavyweight division"},"content":{"rendered":"

Filip Hrgovic<\/a> believes that, both stylistically and speed-wise, neither Daniel Dubois<\/a> nor Agit Kabayel<\/a> is his \u201ctoughest\u201d heavyweight rival.<\/p>\n

The Croatian became his nation\u2019s first world heavyweight champion last month, causing a major upset by stopping Moses Itauma<\/a> in round nine.<\/p>\n

Not only was Itauma an almighty pre-fight favourite but, for the first eight rounds, he had built a sizable lead and was dominating their contest.<\/p>\n

Then came a moment of pure drama when, despite seeming in full control \u2013 and having scored a second-round knockdown \u2013 the 21-year-old ran desperately short of gas and was suddenly there for the taking.<\/p>\n

Capitalising on his opponent\u2019s exhaustion, Hrgovic put the finishing touches on a stunning ninth-round stoppage<\/a> and, in turn, prevented Itauma from becoming the youngest world heavyweight champion since Mike Tyson.<\/p>\n

By claiming the IBF title, the 34-year-old has also positioned himself for a mandatory defence against Frank Sanchez, even if he would rather a unification match against Dubois or Kabayel.<\/p>\n

Equally, Hrgovic has told talkSPORT<\/a> that the respective WBC and IBF champions are unlikely to offer a greater test than Itauma.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only option on my mind now is to unify [the] division, because I think I beat the hardest guy in the division [Itauma].<\/p>\n

I beat the most talented guy, the fastest guy \u2013 and, honestly, without any disrespect, I think fights against Kabayel and Dubois will be easier.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not so fast, they\u2019re not southpaws \u2026 they\u2019re maybe more experienced [than Itauma], and both will be tough fights, but I think I\u2019ll handle them much easier than this kid [Itauma].\u201d<\/p>\n

While fully confident in defeating Dubois, Hrgovic did lose their 2024 encounter<\/a> after getting stopped on cuts in round eight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Filip Hrgovic believes that, both stylistically and speed-wise, neither Daniel Dubois nor Agit Kabayel is his \u201ctoughest\u201d heavyweight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":910154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-910153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=910153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/910154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=910153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=910153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=910153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}