Moses Itauma and Filip Hrgovic met for the vacant IBF heavyweight title at The O2 in London, headlining a Queensberry Promotions card that also featured Sam Noakes against Denys Berinchyk and several heavyweight matchups. The championship fight matched unbeaten 21-year-old Itauma against former interim title challenger Hrgovic.
Filip Hrgovic (21-1, 16 KOs) emerged as the new IBF heavyweight champion after stopping Moses Itauma (14-1, 12 KOs) in the ninth round. Itauma dropped Hrgovic in the second, but the Croatian recovered and remained in the fight as both heavyweights began to tire. Hrgovic pressed forward late in the ninth and dropped Itauma before the referee waved it off as Itauma’s corner threw in the towel at 2:27.
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In the co-feature, Sam Noakes (19-1, 16 KOs) defeated former WBO champion Denys Berinchyk (19-2, 9 KOs) by unanimous decision to capture the vacant WBO International lightweight title. Noakes controlled the fight on the scorecards, winning 100-90, 99-91, and 98-92.
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Heavyweight Nelson Hysa (25-0, 23 KOs) maintained his unbeaten record with a second-round TKO of Thomas Narmo (14-1, 14 KOs), retaining his WBO Global title. Constantin Ursu (16-0, 7 KOs) also remained undefeated after his welterweight fight with Ben Vaughan (12-3, 4 KOs) was stopped on the advice of the ringside doctor just three seconds into the eighth round due to a cut over Vaughan’s right eye.
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Elsewhere, heavyweights Guido Vianello (14-3-2, 12 KOs) and Moses Jolly (12-0-1, 8 KOs) fought to a 76-76 draw. The prelims featured victories for Arbnor Jashari, Aloys Youmbi, Zayn Ahmed, Hassan Ishaq, Frankie Wood, Tony Curtis, and Sam King.
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Image Credit: BBC