{"id":652653,"date":"2026-06-22T18:47:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T18:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/652653\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T18:47:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T18:47:14","slug":"itauma-vs-hrgovic-croatian-questions-british-heavyweights-rise-in-tense-news-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/652653\/","title":{"rendered":"Itauma vs Hrgovic: Croatian questions British heavyweight’s rise in tense news conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

A win for Itauma could lead to an all-British world-title shot at Daniel Dubois next, if the WBO world champion wins a mooted rematch with Fabio Wardley.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the 5 Live Boxing podcast earlier on Monday, Itauma said he is also targeting unified champion Oleksandr Usyk next, or a fight against German contender Agit Kabayel on away soil for a vacant title.<\/p>\n

But first he must come through Hrgovic, a 2016 Olympic bronze medallist who has won 20 professional fights and most recently stopped Briton Dave Allen in the third round in May.<\/p>\n

“It’s my toughest fight. Filip Hrgovic is no mug,” Itauma said.<\/p>\n

“Hrgovic has achieved so much in this sport. He’s beaten so many well-known guys, not just in British boxing but boxing in general. He’s won an Olympic bronze medal.<\/p>\n

“The beautiful thing about my position is I can strip him away from all of that.”<\/p>\n

But Hrgovic, whose only defeat came against Dubois in 2024,<\/a> was less complimentary of his opponent.<\/p>\n

“I’m a fighter. I look at it from a different angle. I’ve never seen him in trouble. I’ve never seen him punched, get dropped,” he said.<\/p>\n

“He’s definitely got speed and skills but to be a great fighter you must have hard will, chin and endurance.”<\/p>\n

Billed as youth versus experience, the question of whether the pair respect each other was a theme throughout.<\/p>\n

“Once that first punch lands, I’m sure he’ll respect me then,” Itauma said.<\/p>\n

Despite the tension, Hrgovic and Itauma exchanged a handshake during a courteous face-off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A win for Itauma could lead to an all-British world-title shot at Daniel Dubois next, if the WBO…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-652653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}