{"id":676102,"date":"2026-07-06T04:47:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T04:47:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/676102\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T04:47:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T04:47:19","slug":"new-heavyweight-world-champion-has-no-problem-fighting-moses-itauma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/676102\/","title":{"rendered":"New heavyweight world champion has &#8216;no problem&#8217; fighting Moses Itauma"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A newly-crowned world champion insists he has no interest in swerving any potential rivals, including heavyweight prodigy <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/moses-itauma-2\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Moses Itauma<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The 21-year-old comes off a destructive fifth-round finish over Jermaine Franklin in March, but now looks to complete what is, on paper, his toughest assignment thus far.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/boxing\/articles\/cn8q67l4dgdo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">This will arrive in the form of a clash with Filip Hrgovic on August 29<\/a>, with Itauma bidding to extend his unbeaten record at London\u2019s O2 Arena.<\/p>\n<p>More importantly, Hrgovic should determine whether Itauma is a genuine world-class talent, with the Croatian having previously gone toe-to-toe in competitive encounters against the likes of Daniel Dubois and Zhilei Zhang.<\/p>\n<p>The Dubois fight, in particular, saw Hrgovic prove himself at world level, despite their June 2024 contest ultimately resulting in an eighth-round stoppage defeat.<\/p>\n<p>But while Itauma has agreed to face the 34-year-old in August, there is a chance he abandons this plan and pursues an IBF title fight with Frank Sanchez.<\/p>\n<p>The pair have been ordered to collide following <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/usyk-announces-final-decision-on-belts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Oleksandr Usyk\u2019s decision to vacate his three belts<\/a>, with the IBF giving both sides until July 29 to agree terms.<\/p>\n<p>But Itauma is nonetheless closing in on a world title shot, regardless of whether he faces Hrgovic or Sanchez, and could eventually find himself in the ring with Agit Kabayel.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking with <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/YvcP6wdhpCo?si=K5IkwmFS2TbmLrxj\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Ring Magazine<\/a>, the WBC champion said he would happily face Itauma \u2013 and any other competitor, for that matter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor me, it\u2019s no problem \u2013 I\u2019ll fight everyone. Now, I\u2019m in the best situation. When the No.1 challenger is ready \u2026 [I\u2019ll fight him].<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen we fight for [another] belt, maybe the WBA or WBO belt \u2026 We\u2019ll make a unification [match].\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kabayel was elevated from \u2018interim\u2019 to full WBC champion following Usyk\u2019s decision to vacate his belts and, in turn, avoid any mandatory duties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A newly-crowned world champion insists he has no interest in swerving any potential rivals, including heavyweight prodigy Moses&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-676102","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\/676102","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=676102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}