How hard it is not to be strong,
how hard it is to be alone,
and to be old, yet to be young!
Daily Lament by Tin Ujevic, Croatian poet. 1891-1955
It is unlikely Croatian Felipe Hrgovic shares my view of his IBF Heavyweight title fight with the 21-year-old Moses Itauma this Saturday. He will approach the contest resplendent in the muscled armoury of a life spent in boxing and the genetic gifts of a 6-6 frame and broad shoulders.
In all probability, the handsome giant will feels as fit as he did five years ago and confident in the qualification his superior experience provides. Particularly, as he peers across the promotional dais toward such a youthful opponent. There is an IBF title to be won and beyond it lays riches and reward of even greater significance.
Or, beneath the assumptions imposed by his heft and preparation, sits an unease. The type a heavyweight contender cannot voice. Doubt.
Aged 34 Hrgovic remains, through the gift of heavyweight folk lore that insists the big men have an elasticated prime not enjoyed by their more diminutive contemporaries, a prominent and current actor in sport’s greatest soap opera. The truth, the clay we all manipulate in our lives, insists that Hrgovic is already beyond his physical zenith. Such as it is for a fighter with wandering attention. He has always been talented. Big. Capable. The problem has been consistency and focus. Both in the shadows away from the ring lights where Muhammad Ali believed fights were truly won and lost, and in the heat of the battle, when his attention can drift and mistakes follow.
Against the charging Itauma he will need to box with certainty. He will need to have purged his body of arrogance and distilled his ability to its most potent form. At 34, there remains time and in a post Fury, Joshua and Usyk landscape Hrgovic will be a legitimate aspirant to take the throne. Or, at, 34, he could be the latest contender perfectly selected by the finest steward of emerging fighters, Frank Warren, to offer substance to Itauma’s surge toward to the top. Were Hrgovic as reliable as he is gifted, this fight would we too soon for the 21-year-old but his weaknesses; consistency and stamina, provide the opportunity and holes for Itauma to punch through.
The hyperbole around Itauma is not misplaced. He is different as much as he is brilliant. Fast. Aggressive and possesses proper – as the London boxing fraternity like to say – knockout power. He’s more stout than his contemporaries and conveys a mind set which is alternative too. Aware, studious and simplistic. Confidence unabashed by the reputation of others but observant and a listener too. He shifts his feet well. Closes distance and commits to combinations attacks. It is a heady alchemy that opponents thus far have been unable to adapt to. He wins. And usually early.
Wise heads mention Mike Tyson after he fights, and they’re not embarrassed by the comparison when they wake up on a Sunday morning; in the way Johnny Nelson usually is.
The algebra of the match up is to discover if Itauma’s X-factor is greater than Hrgovic’s why. As an advocate of Itauma I’m obliged to sustain belief in him against a fighter that has frustrated before. And yet, as fight day arrives, here also arrives the whispering enemy.
Doubt.
BOXINGWRITER.CO.UK 
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