The tension cracked at the weigh-in for Moses Itauma’s fight with Filip Hrgovic, with the young Briton pushing his rival off the stage before receiving a slap in return.
Itauma, 21, will puts his unbeaten record on the line when he fights Hrgovic for the vacant IBF heavyweight belt, as the pair headline at London’s O2 Arena on Saturday.
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And Itauma had been typically stoic until Friday’s weigh-in, refusing to rise to the Croatian’s taunts that he is “delusional” and just a “kid”.
Filip Hrgovic slapping Moses Itauma at their weigh-in (PA)
But the face-off saw each man bark at the other, with Itauma insisting he will “f*** up” Hrgovic on Saturday, before he pushed the 34-year-old off the stage as Hrgovic flexed in front of the fans.
Hrgovic then took to the stage again, slapping Itauma before the heavyweights were held apart.
“I just told him what’s gonna happen; I’ll smash him,” Hrgovic told DAZN moments later. “He pushed me first, so I just give him [something] back, you know? He started [it].”
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“I was ready to go,” Itauma admitted. “I don’t know, I just lost it a little bit […] I had a little itch, and I just had to scratch it.”
The Briton’s promoter Frank Warren soon added: “I’m a bit surprised myself at what happened. He’s not normally like this, Moses, but he’s up for this, as you can see.
“I think that’s what he was trying to do there: stamp his authority before he even gets into the ring. He’s showing he’s not fazed by what Filip brings.”
Itauma will enter the fight on the back of a stoppage of Jermaine Franklin in March, when he became the first boxer to knock out the American. In his previous bout, Itauma stopped compatriot and veteran Dillian Whyte inside two minutes.
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Meanwhile, Hrgovic’s last four fights have all come against British opposition. In the first of those contests, in 2024, he suffered his sole professional loss when he was stopped by Daniel Dubois after sustaining a nasty cut.
But the Croatian bounced back with points wins over David Adeleye and Joe Joyce, and a stoppage of Dave Allen in May.
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