David Haye Backs Moses Itauma to Rule Heavyweight After First Loss

Moses Itauma walked into London on Saturday night one win from becoming boxing's second-youngest heavyweight world champion. He walked out with the first loss of his career, stopped in the ninth round by Croatia's Filip Hrgovic. At 21 years old and previously 14-0 with 12 knockouts, the ranked #6 heavyweight had never been past five rounds — and it showed.

The early rounds went exactly to script. Itauma's hand speed and movement banked him session after session as he hunted the stoppage that had ended his last outing, a fifth-round TKO of Jermaine Franklin. But Hrgovic didn't fold. His chin held, the fight turned into a test of engines, and the more experienced man had the deeper tank. By round nine, an exhausted Itauma had nothing left.

Why Haye Isn't Worried

Former two-weight world champion David Haye watched it all and came away more convinced, not less. Speaking to Seconds Out, Haye argued that a first-round blowout would have answered nothing. Getting hurt, getting tired, and being forced to problem-solve told him what he actually needed to know about the kid.

Haye's point is a pacing one, not a talent one. He said Itauma clearly has seven or eight rounds of doing whatever he wants in him — the punch variety, the shot selection, the defensive slips are all there. What the youngster hasn't learned yet is how to ration all of it over 12 rounds. That's a fixable problem, not a fatal flaw.

There's personal history in Haye's optimism, too. 'The Hayemaker' was famously stopped by Carl Thompson early in his own career before rebuilding into a cruiserweight and heavyweight champion. So when he says he's '100%' certain Itauma becomes heavyweight king one day, it's coming from someone who's walked the exact same road back from an early upset.

Itauma has already asked for the rematch, but the timeline doesn't favor him. Hrgovic — now Croatia's first heavyweight world champion — is moving on to a mandatory defense against Cuba's Frank Sanchez, ranked #7 at 26-1 (19 KO) and coming off a second-round knockout of Richard Torrez. That leaves the 21-year-old facing a spell on the sidelines to reset and rebuild.

The verdict here is simple. A perfect record is gone, but the ceiling isn't. Itauma got old-fashioned schooling in the one department a 14-fight prospect can't fake — championship-distance conditioning. Learn to pace it, and Haye may well be proven right sooner than the rematch queue suggests.