Filip Hrgovic’s trainer Abel Sanchez sums up Moses Itauma’s power after surviving his best shots

Filip Hrgovic rocked the heavyweight division by handing Moses Itauma a first career defeat last weekend to capture the IBF heavyweight title, and Hrgovic’s trainer Abel Sanchez has shared his assessment of Itauma’s power.

Itauma had never fought beyond the sixth round heading into last weekend’s ambitious world title bid, but the youngster was still expected to get the job done and knock Hrgovic out to become the second-youngest heavyweight ruler in boxing history.

Once the heavyweight duo reached the halfway point of the contest though, it became clear that, despite Itauma’s early dominance, it was Hrgovic in the ascendency due to his superior stamina, later stopping his rival in round nine of the bout in a major upset win.

Speaking to Fight Hub TV, Sanchez, who has now trained a total of 20 world champions, declared that ‘Itauma is not a big puncher’ and that he and his team picked the wrong opponent for the 21-year-old at this point in his career.

“Moses is not a big puncher, man. He is a big puncher against guys that he has faced that were not on the level of Filip.

“That night, because of his abilities, he could have beaten a lot of top 10 heavyweights. It’s just that they chose a guy who is tested against the elite and has never been really hurt. He went down against [Zhilei] Zhang but, like in this one, I think it was more of a flash knockdown.

“They picked the wrong guy at this level of Itauma’s career.”

Whilst Itauma has already stated that he wants a rematch with the Croatian, Hrgovic is expected to instead next face Cuba’s Frank Sanchez in a mandatory defence of his new IBF world title.