Moses Itauma suffers shocking KO loss to Filip Hrgovic
Ariel Helwani reacts to a wild night of combat sports as Moses Itauma suffers a shocking KO loss to Filip Hrgovic and Song Yadong stuns Umar Nurmagomedov in Shanghai.
Video Transcript
I am in an absolute state of shock.
I cannot believe what I just witnessed seconds ago at the O2 Arena in London.
I'm sitting on the couch waiting all day for the coronation of Moses Itauma, twenty-one years young, about to become the second youngest heavyweight champion in the history of boxing, just a little over a year older than the great Mike Tyson was way back when, when he won the WBC heavyweight title.
This time Moses, who we've been talking about fourteen and 0, this phenom, past three years I keep talking about him, keep talk Everyone's talking about him, beating everyone.
Can he get by Jermaine Franklin?
Can he stop Jermaine Franklin, Dillian Whyte?
Test after test after test, he does it all.
And I'm sitting here and I'm waiting, and I tell my son Oliver, I say, "Oliver, come here.
Come watch with me.
You're about to see the future.
You're about to see the guy who in twenty years people will say was the next Mike Tyson.
You could tell all your friends you saw him win his first heavyweight title."
Who's he fighting?
Oh, he's fighting Filip Hrgovi.
Tough guy.
He's won four in a row.
Not championship level.
Had a chance against Daniel Dubois a couple years ago, but supremely tough.
Someone who, you know, has been there, has fought some of the best guys, has looked good as of late, has been incredibly confident this week, has fired up Moses a little bit.
I've lost my voice yelling at what I just saw.
He got in Moses' head a little bit.
He didn't look scared at the moment.
He didn't look intimidated by the moment.
He'll be a nice test.
He'll be a nice step up, a great opponent to win your first heavyweight title.
And what happens?
Moses Itauma looks great first round, second round, throwing everything at him.
But it did appear as time went on, and I'm burying the lead here, it appeared as time went on that he was getting tired, and then in the ninth round he completely gassed out.
I couldn't believe it.
Like, he was like, you know, he The tank wasn't on full in the eighth or seventh, but come the ninth it was like past the E, and he was stumbling, and he was woozy.
And for a moment I was like, "Is he doing the, the rope a dope thing?
Is he playing possum?"
He was not, and then with about thirty seconds left, Ben Davison, who I think is one of the absolute best trainers in boxing, throws in the towel.
TKO victory.
Filip Hrgovi is the new IBF heavyweight champion.
The pride of Croatia stops Moses Itauma.
Itauma now fourteen and one.
The coronation at the O2, this was suppo- this was a lock in my opinion, is no more.
