{"id":673371,"date":"2026-07-04T12:16:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T12:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/673371\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T12:16:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T12:16:07","slug":"heavyweight-champion-begged-to-face-moses-itauma-after-his-last-performance-bring-him-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/673371\/","title":{"rendered":"Heavyweight champion begged to face Moses Itauma after his last performance: “Bring him on”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Moses Itauma<\/a> was selected as the most desirable opponent for a world champion but, instead, he will now be facing Filip Hrgovic<\/a> on August 29.<\/p>\n

The pair have agreed to collide at London\u2019s O2 Arena, with Itauma coming off a fifth-round finish over the typically durable Jermaine Franklin<\/a> in March.<\/p>\n

Against Hrgovic, though, the heavyweight prodigy is set to encounter his sternest assignment thus far, testing whether he is capable of competing at world level.<\/p>\n

Up to this point, the 21-year-old has shown signs of genuine world-class potential, albeit against opponents he was largely expected to dispatch within a few rounds.<\/p>\n

Hrgovic, meanwhile, has only suffered the one defeat against Daniel Dubois<\/a>, in June 2024, when he remained fiercely competitive before getting stopped on cuts in round eight.<\/p>\n

But while the Croatian is seen as a credible opponent, Itauma could have ended up with a world title opportunity if only his team had entertained a showdown with Murat Gassiev.<\/p>\n

The Russian was elevated from \u2018regular\u2019 to full WBA champion after Oleksandr Usyk, his former cruiserweight foe, decided to vacate his three belts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Before that, promoter Al Siesta told Seconds Out<\/a> that Gassiev was particularly keen on defending his title against Itauma.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Gassiev] watched that fight against Jermaine Franklin and the trainer called me instantly and said, \u2018I will have him \u2013 please, please\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I went back to Frank [Warren, Itauma\u2019s promoter], I comfortably said, \u2018Frank, we\u2019re happy with Itauma. Bring him on\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were like \u2026 \u2018Right, okay. Let\u2019s see. Let\u2019s revisit that later\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gassiev was set to lock horns with Tony Yoka on July 11 but, with the Olympic gold medallist sustaining a back injury, the WBA champion is now searching for a new opponent to face at Moscow\u2019s VTB Arena<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Moses Itauma was selected as the most desirable opponent for a world champion but, instead, he will now…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-673371","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\/673371","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=673371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}