Being stretchered out of the ring can permanently change boxers but Moses Itauma can still be all-time heavyweight great

MOSES ITAUMA was thankfully released from hospital in the early hours of Sunday morning and spent the day back home recovering with his family. It doesn’t sound like the physical toll was as dramatic as it looked in the ring after his shock defeat to Filip Hrgovic. Moses Itauma suffered a huge blow in his young boxing career Credit: Getty But he will bounce back stronger after defeat to Filip Hrgovic Credit: Reuters But when he was on that yellow stretcher being taken out with his eyes closed, holding the hand of a medic he would never have even known, he looked to be in serious jeopardy. Thankfully that’s not the case. Sign up for the Sport newsletter Thank you! MOSES ITAUMA VS FILIP HRGOVIC: LIVE COVERAGE And now what he faces is the psychological rebuild now. For a 21-year-old man, he’s been freakishly mature in the way that he’s carried himself, and hopefully that just continues now, and that he can brush this off. But a three-weight world champion like Duke McKenzie has said this morning that being carried out on a stretcher and beaten like that changed him for the rest of his career. Dave Allen, another heavyweight, certainly not in Moses’ class or ability and potential said the same about when he was really beaten up by David Price and again carried out on a gurney. These events change fighters, but they don’t happen very often, thankfully. SUN VEGAS WELCOME OFFER: GET UP TO £100 BONUS The Home of Boxing in 2026 There's a massive year of boxing ahead! It’s shaping up to be a blockbuster year of action inside the boxing ring. The Gypsy King has beaten Mariusz Wach in his second fight of the year to set up a huge fight with Anthony Joshua And AJ did the same, knocking out Kristian Prenga in the second round of a thrilling encounter – the Brit was knocked down twice in the opening round. Now fans are looking forward to Moses Itauma’s return for his toughest fight yet against Filip Hrgovic in August. Here’s all the big fights coming up… August Sat 29 – Moses Itauma vs Filip Hrgovic – DAZN September Sat 12 – Conor Benn vs Ryan Garcia – DAZN *If you click a link in this boxout, we will earn affiliate revenue. And now Moses will have to show the mental fortitude of a man at least twice his age to come back from that, and there’s no reason to say that he can’t, because all the signs are still there that he’s potentially a great. Most read in Sport He fought seven brilliant rounds against Hrgovic – winning them all. Hrgovic said he’s the best he’s ever been, in that he couldn’t cope with him for all those rounds, but he said he knew he would gas. From the fourth and fifth, he could see it. And the fact that a 21-year-old man at the supposed peak of his physical fitness and condition is gassing out like that, that’s a worry. But it happened to David Haye 10 fights in against Carl Thompson and look what he came back to to achieve. The physical recovery seems to have gone quickly and well, and hopefully the psychological one will go just as smoothly. Itauma clearly has all the natural talent to be the man who takes that baton from Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua. We just expected too much too soon from him. Comment now