Moses Itauma was on the verge of breaking through big time on the world stage as a would-be world titleholder at the tender age of 21, but inexperience and subsequent disaster struck when he would ultimately get stopped by Filip Hrgovic in a bid for the vacant IBF heavyweight belt. Speaking to Ring Magazine with some time removed, Itauma shared some of these thoughts.
“To be honest, like, every year my life has changed dramatically, and this year has just taken another dramatic turn,” Itauma said.
“Not only like Hrgovic was my first ever loss, it’s the third ever round I’ve lost in my whole career and I did it at the age of 21, fighting for the heavyweight championship of the world. So, it’s not like — I don’t know, I think people expect me to be not satisfied or down or whatever with that performance. I just ain’t.
“Like, I respected Hrgovic a lot before the fight, was probably would’ve be one of the factors I lost. But I still give him respect now because a lot of heavyweights that took the punishment that he took, I don’t think they would’ve lasted that much like he went. For that, I can’t really say much. I guess he kind of deserves it.
“Even now I’m still trying to accept the face that I lost, you know what I mean? For me, my take after the fight is like from what I had and the experience I had, the preparation I had and the things that I knew, I tried my best and I fell short to the more experienced man. What do you want me to do? If I had something like ‘I could’ve done this in camp’ or ‘I should’ve listened to that person’…but I gave it my all. I tried my best and I didn’t win that night.
“We go back to the drawing board, we assess, we move on.”
