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Instead, he believes many simply want to see him hurt.<\/p>\n \u201cThe one thing that I necessarily don\u2019t agree with is people are saying, \u2018Oh, they want to see me tested,’\u201d Itauma told IFL TV. \u201cWhen they say tested, they want to just see me get hurt. That\u2019s what they mean by tested.<\/p>\n \u201cThey want to see this whole, \u2018Can you take a punch? Test your chin.\u2019 But that\u2019s not the meaning of tested. They just want to see me get hurt. I\u2019m going to try my best not to, but obviously in boxing it\u2019s probably inevitable. It\u2019s just how you deal with that situation.\u201d<\/p>\n Itauma argued that being tested should be measured by a fighter\u2019s ability to solve problems inside the ring rather than by how much punishment they can absorb. He pointed to his victory over Jermaine Franklin earlier this year, explaining that he had to alter his approach after trying too hard for an early stoppage.<\/p>\n \u201cGetting the rounds. You want to put on a bit of a show before you close it out,\u201d Itauma said. \u201cIn the Jermaine Franklin fight, I tried to knock him out to prove a point, then I thought, \u2018I might have started too fast.\u2019 I changed the tactics, slowed it down a bit, and then got the knockout.<\/p>\n \u201cI proved to my coaches that I\u2019m able to change the tactics mid-fight.\u201d<\/p>\n The Hrgovic bout should provide Itauma with another opportunity to answer those questions. The Croatian is a former Olympic bronze medalist whose only professional defeat came against Daniel Dubois in an IBF heavyweight title fight, making him the most accomplished opponent Itauma has faced.<\/p>\n A victory over Hrgovic would strengthen Itauma\u2019s case for a shot at one of the heavyweight titles that became available after Oleksandr Usyk vacated multiple belts, while also giving him the biggest win of his rapidly developing career.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tom Galm is a boxing journalist who has covered the global fight landscape since 2014, specializing in heavyweight analysis, industry trends, and fighter psychology.<\/p>\n Click here to subscribe to our FREE newsletter<\/a>Related Boxing News:<\/p>\n \t\t\tCategories Moses Itauma<\/a> \t\t<\/p>\n Boxing News 24<\/a> \u00bb Moses Itauma<\/a> \u00bb Moses Itauma Says Critics Don\u2019t Want Him Tested They Just Want To See Him Get Hurt<\/p>\n Last Updated on 2026\/07\/08 at 1:04 PM \t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The heavyweight contender says critics confuse being tested with getting hurt, arguing that adapting tactics in the ring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-680990","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\/680990","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=680990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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