Frank Warren has backed Moses Itauma to learn from the first defeat of his professional career but warned the British prospect to avoid an immediate rematch with Filip Hrgovic.
Itauma missed out on becoming the second-youngest world heavyweight champion of all-time after he was stopped in the ninth round by Hrgovic at the O2 Arena on Saturday night with the IBF belt on the line.
The Chatham southpaw sensation was up by a wide margin on each of the fight cards in London but emptied the tank in pursuit of a knockout finish, and referee Howard Foster was forced to step in after Hrgovic landed a flurry of blows on the 21-year-old during round nine.
“I would like to see him in at least one or maybe two fights and see where we go before we go (for a rematch), but we need to see where we are,” Queensberry promoter Warren told talkSPORT.
“I was just on the phone with him. He is very disappointed, very disappointed. He knows what he should have done and where it went wrong for him, but it is something we’ve got to put right. You have got to learn from it. He’s a very brave young man, and it is now what he does and how he prepares.
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He is saying to me, ‘Can we get the rematch on? ’ which is a natural reaction, but I’ve told him to switch off from boxing, go chill out, spend time with the family and then come back, recharge the batteries, and get to work again.
“He has got to learn from that, and the corner has to learn. His team and all of us. It is all pretty raw at the moment and sore. We’ll sit down and have a debrief.
“There is going to have to be some changes, and there will be some changes to where he is at, but one thing about Moses is he’s an intelligent guy, he is a nice kid, has got a very good brain on him, and he’ll learn from this.”
