Moses Itauma’s first world-title fight official as Filip Hrgovic clash has belt added

Alex PattleTue, August 4, 2026 at 9:04 AM UTC

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Moses Itauma (left) vs Filip Hrgovic would be a fitting vacant-title fight (Getty)

Moses Itauma and Filip Hrgovic will clash over the IBF heavyweight title on 29 August, after the belt was added to their London showdown.

Later this month, Itauma and Hrgovic will headline at the O2 Arena, and the stakes have been raised following the addition of the IBF title as a prize.

The move follows Oleksandr Usyk’s decision to vacate the unified belts; the WBC’s went to Agit Kabayel, and the WBA’s to Murat Gassiev, leaving just the IBF’s up in the air.

Now 21-year-old Itauma, who has long been touted as a future champion, will fight for a world title for the first time. If Itauma were to win, he would become the youngest world heavyweight champion since Mike Tyson.

“A lot of people have high expectations of him, as I have by the way,” Queensberry Promotions’s Frank Warren told the BBC.

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“We signed him when he was 16, he was an amateur. We sponsored him and he turned professional with us. And he’s been amazing and sort of taken the world by storm. This is a big moment for him, but I’m confident he can do it.”

Itauma had been ordered to negotiate a fight with Frank Sanchez for the vacant IBF title, but the Cuban stepped aside on the condition that he would face the winner of Itauma vs Hrgovic.

“We paid [Sanchez] some money,” Warren said. “We said whoever wins the fight, you’re not losing out, and you’ll get the opportunity to fight for the title against the winner.”

Britain’s Itauma will enter the bout with an unbeaten record of 14-0 (12 KOs), while Croatia’s Hrgovic is 20-1 (15 KOs).

Last time out, Itauma stopped Jermaine Franklin in the fifth round in March, having beaten Dillian Whyte in the first round last August.

Meanwhile, Hrgovic, 34, is on a three-fight win streak since his sole professional loss – a stoppage by Daniel Dubois in 2024. Since that loss, Hrgovic has defeated three Britons in a row: Joe Joyce and David Adeleye on points, and Dave Allen via stoppage in May.

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Source: “AOL Sports”