{"id":794062,"date":"2026-10-06T20:08:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T20:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/794062\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T20:08:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T20:08:18","slug":"filip-hrgovic-close-to-securing-major-homecoming-fight-with-likely-opponent-named","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/794062\/","title":{"rendered":"Filip Hrgovic close to securing major homecoming fight with likely opponent named"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Filip Hrgovic is now the reigning IBF heavyweight world champion following his shock win against Moses Itauma in August. Now, \u2018El Animal\u2019 is set for a first defence and it looks that it\u2019s going to take place in his homeland of Croatia.<\/p>\n<p>Hrgovic halted Itauma in round nine despite being well behind on the scorecards, in one of the most dramatic moments of 2026 so far. He has since expressed interest in a rematch with the youngster as well as a potential title unification with WBC world champion, Agit Kabayel.<\/p>\n<p>However, it was agreed that the winner would face number one contender Frank Sanchez next as part of a step aside deal, and the Cuban revealed to Boxing News that he expects the fight to happen in either December or January.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe news is that I am exercising my mandatory. The fight will happen as soon as Hrgovic is ready. I understand it may be December or January.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI look forward to beating Hrgovic. I will win that fight and become the first Cuban Heavyweight Champion. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor this, I am very motivated. I\u2019m faster and stronger than Hrgovic. When I\u2019m healthy, no heavyweight can beat me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now, speaking with <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/66RN2XjTKcs?si=kylToOJaji8L6O85\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Playbook Boxing<\/a>, Hrgovic\u2019s promoter Frank Warren has confirmed that Sanchez is indeed the targeted opponent for a planned first defence in Croatia, despite Hrgovic attempting to play down the agreement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou have got to take your hat off to Filip [for beating Itauma], he is no slouch. He took some stick and he was game. It reminded me a lot of some of Joe Joyce\u2019s fights where Joe took some stick and then bam.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHis reward is that we are going to put him on in Croatia. He wants to fight in Croatia.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe paid him [Frank Sanchez] to step aside for the [Itauma] fight so yeah [he will be the opponent]. So, we will do that in Croatia, I hope, we are just working on that and it\u2019s another big heavyweight world title fight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It remains to be seen whether the card will land in Hrgovic\u2019s hometown of Zagreb, as the <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/update-on-hrgovic-first-title-defence\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">roofed 11,000-seater Kranj\u010devi\u0107eva Stadium will not be ready for events until March<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Filip Hrgovic is now the reigning IBF heavyweight world champion following his shock win against Moses Itauma in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":794063,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-794062","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\/794062","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=794062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/794063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=794062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=794062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=794062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}