Nigerian-born heavyweight boxer, Moses Itauma has been tipped to recover from last Saturday’s shock defeat by Filip Hrgovic of Croatia and bounce back in the same way that British legend, David Haye did en route to becoming world champion in two weight categories, Sports247 reports.
The prediction in favour of Itauma came from another British icon, Carl Frampton, a former boxer from Northern Ireloand, who also held world belts in two weight classes, including the IBF super bantamweight title from 2014 to 2016.
Frampton, who also held the WBA super bantamweight belt in 2016 as well as WBA (Super) featherweight title from 2016 to 2017, admitted it was a huge shock seeing Itauma crumble against Hrgovic on Saturday at London’s O2 Arena, but stressed that it’s not over for him.
He encouraged the youngster to take a cue from the story of Haye, who held the unified and Ring Magazine cruiserweight belts from 2007 to 2008 as well as the WBA heavyweight title from 2009 to 2011 – after he lost to 40-year-old Carl Thompson on September 10, 2004.
Thompson stopped the then 23-year-old and unbeaten Haye in the fifth round at Wembley Arena in London to retian the IBO Cruiserweight title, but ‘The Haymaker’ would later describe that loss as a crucial point that shaped his path to a glorious future in the roped square.
Frampton is now looking up to a revival for Itauma as well, considering that he is still young and highly regarded with a lot of potential, though analysts reckon he jumped into the International Boxing Federation (IBF) title challenge a little too early in his career.
Although the 21-year-old prodigy had to be rushed to hospital on a stretcher after slumping in the ninth round of Saturday’s title fight, Frampton recalled that British greats like Haye and Amir Khan had to overcome similar disasters at the start of their professional careers.
Frampton told UK’s SunSport: “You can compare this to almost like David Haye when he lost to Carl Thompson. No one expected Moses to lose, except Filip Hrgovic and his team. No one expected David Haye to lose to an old Carl Thompson as well.
“He did, but he came back better and he was a better fighter for it. I think this is going to be one of them ones. It’ll feel like the end of the world right now for Moses, but give it a few weeks, maybe a month or so. He’ll be okay and he’ll come again.”
Sports247 recalls that, although ‘The Haymaker’ never got a chance for his revenge over Thompson, he recovered from that setback and got his career back on track to the point of becoming world cruiserweight and heavyweight champion at various points.
