Dillian Whyte says he wasn’t the least bit surprised that Filip Hrgovic stopped Moses Itauma for the IBF heavyweight title, as first reported by Boxing News.
Whyte knows Itauma better than most. The two met in Saudi Arabia in August 2025, in Itauma’s first-ever main event, and the young Brit took Whyte out in the opening round.
The script flipped in August of this year. Itauma, just 21, was chasing history as the second-youngest heavyweight champion ever and was in control through eight rounds. Then his gas tank emptied, and Hrgovic got the stoppage in the ninth round.
According to Boxing247, the vacant title fight went down at London’s O2 Arena, with trainer Ben Davison stopping it after Itauma fell into the corner with almost nothing left.
Speaking to iFL TV, Whyte said dragging Itauma into deep water was part of his own plan too. “No, I wasn’t surprised [by Hrgovic’s win] because that was a part of our strategy going into the fight but, unfortunately, the fight didn’t go very long,” he said.
He also had a theory about what went wrong. “The worst thing that Moses did was beat me in a round because then he started to think that he was invincible and that he didn’t have to train and do things the right way.”
The IAHHM Take
Take Whyte’s words with a grain of salt. He’s the guy who got knocked out in one round, so of course he wants that win to look like a trap.
Still, he’s not totally off base. Itauma had been treated like the next big thing at heavyweight, and quick knockouts don’t tell you much about what happens in round nine. Hrgovic, who has since told The Ring that Itauma is surrounded by “yes-men,” exposed that question in the worst way.
Plenty of fighters have lost early and come back better. At 21, Itauma has time to fix the conditioning and rebuild. As for Whyte, he hasn’t fought since that night in Saudi Arabia, though Boxing News reports he’s been linked to a possible clash with fellow Brit Johnny Fisher under Zuffa Boxing.
So what do you think: was Itauma’s loss a conditioning problem, or a confidence problem that started with that one-round win over Whyte?
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Source: Boxing News, Boxing247, The Ring
