Promoter George Warren has said heavyweights, when presented with the prospect of boxing Moses Itauma, want “quadruple the money” they would usually earn.
Itauma will box Filip Hrgovic for the vacant IBF title on Saturday night, as the pair headline at London’s O2 Arena.
For Itauma, however, there is more on the line than just the belt; the 21-year-old Briton will also risk his unbeaten record, while trying to become the second-youngest heavyweight champion of all time.
Hrgovic is bullish going into the bout, as he similarly bids to win his first world title, and the Croatian stands apart from other heavyweights simply by having accepted this fight, Warren suggested.
“Moses is probably the hardest fighter that we’ve ever had to bring through and matchmake [for],” Warren, who helps to promote Itauma, told DAZN.
“Every conversation that you have with any manager or any representative of a heavyweight right now, you mention his name, the price quadruples. They don’t want to fight him. It’s always been: ‘What’s the upside for us?’
“We sat down with Moses, he made it very clear again that this was a fight, stylistically, that they wanted as a team. They felt that it was the right next move after Jermaine Franklin.
“The winner of this, for me, should be considered a [true] world champion; they are legitimately one of the best heavyweights in the world – and can look forward to exciting things next year.”
Itauma’s last outing was his fifth-round stoppage of Franklin in March, when the Briton became the first boxer to knock out the American. In Itauma’s previous bout, he stopped compatriot and veteran Dillian Whyte inside two minutes.
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Meanwhile, Hrgovic enters Saturday’s main event on the back of three consecutive wins over British boxers. The 34-year-old stopped Dave Allen in May after outpointing David Adeleye and Joe Joyce in his two previous fights.
Those wins followed the sole loss of his professional career, which came at the hands of Daniel Dubois in 2024, when the Briton stopped Hrgovic after dealing him a nasty cut.
