So often, sport moves cyclically. Barely two weeks ago, Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury showed in no uncertain terms, through waned performances in faraway lands, that they are at the end. And with that, fans have found themselves firmly at the end of their tethers when it comes to a once alluring, long elusive, and now painfully late heavyweight clash. Then this week brings the news that their compatriot, the unbeaten 21-year-old Moses Itauma, will box on home soil in Britain for the chance to become the youngest heavyweight champion since Mike Tyson. It is just the beginning.
In some ways, Itauma’s fight with Filip Hrgovic feels an antithesis to Joshua vs Fury, but either way, it is certainly an antidote.
Moses Itauma, 21, is unbeaten and is about to fight for a world title (Getty)
Joshua and Fury will enter their fight at 36 and 37 years old respectively. Both are former two-time world champions, each well past his peak. Joshua showed this in needing to climb off the canvas twice in the first round against the unknown Kristian Prenga, before stopping the Albanian in round two in Saudi Arabia.
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It must be said, however, that Joshua’s ability to haul his hulking frame from some desperate nowhere demands admiration, and it felt a physical mirror of his emergence from an emotional oblivion in the last eight months, following the deaths of his teammates in a car crash that “AJ” himself survived.
One day before Joshua’s shootout with Prenga, Fury had dusted the Pattayan sand off his fight shorts – wearing them a few inches lower than he farcically did in his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk – to take on a 46-year-old Mariusz Wach in Thailand. Their bout endured for seven rounds in a “Muay Thai stadium” that more closely resembled a modern school hall, before Wach declared he’d had enough of facing Fury’s weary faculties. The fight was not broadcast anywhere.
And now the pair are on track to clash in the US (where boxing fans have admitted to widespread apathy towards the match-up) for no good reason other than a slightly greater global audience. You could debate the actual degree to which British fans are being deprived of some mesmeric duel, but there is no question that – while domestic interest is at an all-time low – a British audience would at least make the most of the night itself.
That will be altogether easier when Itauma faces Hrgovic.
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On 29 August, Itauma and the Croatian will headline at London’s O2 Arena, with the IBF heavyweight title on the line, in what may go down as a historic moment in British boxing.
Itauma and Filip Hrgovic facing off ahead of their London showdown (Getty)
Itauma has been touted as a world champion in waiting since he was a teenager, and in the ensuing years he has made a mockery of credible and courageous opponents. Each supposed test yields the same result: Wach could not make it to the end of the second round; Demsey McKean was left in a contorted heap inside two minutes; Dillian Whyte also failed to reach the two-minute mark; and Jermaine Franklin was knocked out for the first time when he shared a ring with Itauma in March.
A 34-year-old Hrgovic, at this stage in his career, represents a step up from any of those other competitors, but the trend of Itauma’s career suggests that the young Briton will not only take that step; he may well leap over the former world-title challenger, leaving him slumped beneath him, and take his place as one of the division’s four world champions.
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A fight with Hrgovic is arguably the first boss battle of Itauma’s career, but it’s as if Itauma has already dialed up his attributes well past what is needed right now in this video-game metaphor.
If Itauma can do what only Daniel Dubois has done, in beating Hrgovic, then Dubois himself may await next – potentially in a tantalising stadium showdown in 2027, in a title-unification fight.
Itauma with his promoter Frank Warren (Getty)
With Usyk having vacated all the major titles over the last year, the WBC’s is Agit Kabayel’s, the WBA’s is Murat Gassiev’s, and the WBO’s belongs to Dubois. The IBF may soon be Itauma’s.
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His fight with Hrgovic therefore has genuine stakes, consequences and intrigue.
Meanwhile, Joshua vs Fury is no longer about who is the best of the two; it is about who is the worst. Once upon a time, it might have crowned the greatest heavyweight of a generation, but now it will not even reveal the greatest active Briton.
It is unlikely that Joshua or Fury ever shares a ring with Itauma, such would be the risk to their reputations. In that sense, the rest of this year might act as a remote passing of the torch.
For Fury and Joshua, the flames have almost flickered out. But Itauma holds fire in his hands.
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