Filip Hrgovic stuns Moses Itauma with epic comeback as British heavyweight star loses unbeaten record

Filip Hrgovic produced one of the shocks of the boxing year, stopping an exhausted Moses Itauma in the ninth round at The O2 to win the vacant IBF heavyweight title and become Croatia's first world heavyweight champion.

Itauma, unbeaten coming into the fight and one of the sport's most talked about young talents, had started like a man intent on an early night and for six rounds barely lost a minute.

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It looked like Itauma's bid to become Britain's second-youngest world champion was on course for success after a right hook to the temple rocked Hrgovic inside the opening minute, followed by a second-round left hook that forced the Croatian to steady himself with a glove on the canvas.

Itauma had won every round heading into the second half of the fight but that wasn't telling the full story.

Everything Itauma landed, including a fifth-round left uppercut detonated flush on the point of the chin, was absorbed by a man who had been in the deep waters before, and the effort of trying to move the immovable was draining the younger man with every round he banked.

The seventh round took Itauma beyond six rounds for the first time in his career, and the eighth broke him. Sensing his chance, he emptied the tank in a sustained assault, but Hrgovic stood firm and absorbed the punishment, leaving the young challenger almost completely spent.

Within a minute of the ninth Itauma was out on his feet, unable to hold himself steady as Hrgovic came forward, and his corner threw the towel with their man defenceless. He was attended by medical staff in his corner afterwards having given everything he had.

"Let me ask my young friend something," enquired Hrgovic. "Is a chin important? Chin is important.

"He's an amazing fighter – I want to thank him. To give me a chance to become a new superstar in the heavyweight division. I am the present. He is definitely the future.

"He is the best I have been in the ring with, but he needs more experience. I knew I was losing the round, but I knew that I had the pace in my favour. He needs more experience, but he is one of a kind.

"From the first round, I saw him gassing out. He started fast, I knew he was going to gas out. I knew when my chance came, I needed to push. That is what I did."

For Hrgovic, it was the defining win of a long career, as his toughness and experience in boxing's hardest rooms were rewarded on a night when almost every scoring shot went against him. The victory also reshapes the heavyweight title picture, with the IBF belt now in Croatian hands.

For Itauma, a first professional defeat arrives as a brutal education rather than a humiliation, beaten not by a bigger puncher but by the questions of pace, patience and endurance that his early blowouts had never asked.