{"id":749599,"date":"2026-08-25T20:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T20:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/749599\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T20:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T20:40:11","slug":"starting-to-wind-me-up-itauma-rebuffs-hrgovic-before-world-heavyweight-title-fight-boxing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/749599\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Starting to wind me up\u2019: Itauma rebuffs Hrgovic before world heavyweight title fight | Boxing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Moses Itauma has hit back at Filip Hrgovic\u2019s taunt that he is a \u201cdelusional kid\u201d and admitted that his Croatian rival is starting to annoy him as the two men prepare to fight for the IBF world heavyweight title on Saturday night at the O2 Arena in London.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tell myself there\u2019s nothing that this Hrgovic guy can do to get in my head but he\u2019s starting to wind me up,\u201d Itauma said on Tuesday evening. \u201cIn an interview earlier, apparently he said I wake up and I just hug trees. He\u2019s really starting to annoy me.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my mind if somebody\u2019s trying to get one up on you, or trying to get in your head, it\u2019s because they\u2019re not confident in themselves. Obviously Hrgovic is a talker. Before fights, he\u2019s always said certain things \u2013 like he did to [Daniel] Dubois when he said he sees big muscles but not big balls. Then you see Dubois, in his mind, is raging. So Hrgovic has always been a talker. It\u2019s just because English ain\u2019t his first language that people don\u2019t pay attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Itauma beats Hrgovic, as expected, he will become the second-youngest world heavyweight champion<\/a> in history. Only Mike Tyson won the title at a younger age and Hrgovic said of the 21-year-old Itauma: \u201cHe\u2019s a kid. He\u2019s inexperienced. So, for him, it would be best to lose this fight because it\u2019s going to ruin him, winning the world title. He\u2019s already in the clouds. He\u2019s already delusional. And it can ruin someone who\u2019s not ready for that kind of fame, that kind of money.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can ruin your soul, it can make you lose yourself and we\u2019ve seen a lot of superstars and famous people who have lost themselves. They\u2019re just lost in that crazy world of fame and money. He\u2019s not ready for that. I think, for him, it would be best to lose this fight, to save his soul. Because what does it mean to achieve everything if you lose your soul and you lose yourself?\u201d<\/p>\n

Itauma conceded that there is a semblance of truth in Hrgovic\u2019s words: \u201cAlthough it\u2019s been annoying me, I hear that because I already know the level of success I\u2019ve achieved and how I\u2019m coping. I\u2019ve always said I never wanted to be at Anthony Joshua or Tyson Fury level because I know how annoyed I get trying to be a normal person. Now I can\u2019t imagine being at a level of Tyson Fury or Anthony Joshua. But, at the same time, if I\u2019m going down this path, I don\u2019t have a choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if Hrgovic has a point that winning a world title at such a young age would be bad for his \u201csoul\u201d, Itauma replied: \u201cI wouldn\u2019t say he has a point but if I win this fight it might not be good for my soul. I can hear that. But that\u2019s not the reason why I\u2019m just gonna go in there and not win \u2013 for the sake of my soul. That\u2019s not a good idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pressed to explain why Itauma is \u201cdelusional\u201d, Hrgovic said: \u201cHe went from youth level to professional, had a few fights and became a star. Everyone is clapping him on his back \u2013 [saying] you\u2019re the best, you\u2019re the next Muhammad Ali. You\u2019re the new Mike Tyson. He\u2019s just not, in reality. I\u2019m very grateful for all the hard things I went through. It makes you a different person.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The 34-year-old Hrgovic, who has lost just once in a professional career stretching across nine years, said: \u201cI\u2019m in a much different position because of that experience, and the ups and downs in my life. I\u2019m like a rock. Stable. Nothing can move me. I don\u2019t care about fame. I don\u2019t care about money. I don\u2019t care about what people think. But we\u2019ll see on Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Moses Itauma has hit back at Filip Hrgovic\u2019s taunt that he is a \u201cdelusional kid\u201d and admitted that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":749600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-749599","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\/749599","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=749599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/749600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=749599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=749599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=749599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}