{"id":43919,"date":"2026-06-23T05:53:31","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T05:53:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/itauma-vs-hrgovic-croatian-questions-british-heavyweights-rise-in-tense-news-conference\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T05:53:33","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T05:53:33","slug":"itauma-vs-hrgovic-croatian-questions-british-heavyweights-rise-in-tense-news-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/itauma-vs-hrgovic-croatian-questions-british-heavyweights-rise-in-tense-news-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Itauma vs Hrgovic: Croatian questions British heavyweight&#8217;s rise in tense news conference"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A win for Itauma could lead to an all-British world-title shot at Daniel Dubois next, if the WBO world champion wins a mooted rematch with Fabio Wardley.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Speaking to the 5 Live Boxing podcast earlier on Monday, Itauma said he is also targeting unified champion Oleksandr Usyk next, or a fight against German contender Agit Kabayel on away soil for a vacant title.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But first he must come through Hrgovic, a 2016 Olympic bronze medallist who has won 20 professional fights and most recently stopped Briton Dave Allen in the third round in May.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It&#8217;s my toughest fight. Filip Hrgovic is no mug,&#8221; Itauma said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Hrgovic has achieved so much in this sport. He&#8217;s beaten so many well-known guys, not just in British boxing but boxing in general. He&#8217;s won an Olympic bronze medal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The beautiful thing about my position is I can strip him away from all of that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But Hrgovic, whose only defeat came against Dubois in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/articles\/cd11lrlz6w9o\" class=\"ssrcss-18834jl-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\">2024,<\/a> was less complimentary of his opponent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I&#8217;m a fighter. I look at it from a different angle. I&#8217;ve never seen him in trouble. I&#8217;ve never seen him punched, get dropped,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;He&#8217;s definitely got speed and skills but to be a great fighter you must have hard will, chin and endurance.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Billed as youth versus experience, the question of whether the pair respect each other was a theme throughout.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Once that first punch lands, I&#8217;m sure he&#8217;ll respect me then,&#8221; Itauma said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Despite the tension, Hrgovic and Itauma exchanged a handshake during a courteous face-off.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/boxing\/articles\/cqx1gy197wxo?at_medium=RSS&#038;at_campaign=rss\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A win for Itauma could lead to an all-British world-title shot at Daniel Dubois next, if the WBO world champion wins a mooted rematch with Fabio Wardley. Speaking to the 5 Live Boxing podcast earlier on Monday, Itauma said he is also targeting unified champion Oleksandr Usyk next, or a fight against German contender Agit [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43919"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43919"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43921,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43919\/revisions\/43921"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}