“Itauma probably didn’t come prepared. He might not have been fully focused,” Anderson told The Ring. “He’s young, and they were already putting the world in his hands. And when it comes to the fight, it happens. It’s boxing in the heavyweight division.”
Itauma, 21, had never boxed beyond the sixth round. He still fought as though Hrgovic needed to be removed immediately, loading up on nearly every punch after dropping him in the second.
Hrgovic survived the early attack, stayed close, and forced Itauma to continue working at a pace he could not maintain. Once Itauma’s legs and lungs failed in the ninth, the fight ended quickly.
The defeat exposed the risk of moving young heavyweights too quickly because they are physically gifted and knocking out limited opposition.
In earlier eras, heavyweight prospects regularly accumulated 80 to 100 rounds against durable opponents before fighting genuine contenders. Those developmental bouts taught them how to win rounds without draining themselves, handle resistance, and remain composed when an opponent refused to collapse.
Itauma skipped much of that education because his power made the early stages of his career look easy. Rapid knockouts created excitement but gave him few chances to practice controlling a fight over ten or twelve rounds.
Anderson encountered the same problem against Bakole. He was 24 and fighting professionally for the 18th time when he faced a far more experienced opponent. Bakole dropped him in the opening round, put him down twice more in the fifth, and forced the stoppage.
“I had so many trolls after me when I lost to Bakole, and what I’d tell Itauma is don’t listen to any of the doubters and naysayers,” Anderson said. “You’re young, and still exactly what people said you can be. The world can be in your hands, just need to focus and lock in. We all need humbling experiences in life to get back on track.”
Anderson’s sympathy sounds genuine, but his explanation of his own defeat raises questions about how much he has learned from it.
He suggested Itauma may not have been prepared or fully focused, yet blamed his loss to Bakole primarily on outside distractions and his inability to prepare correctly. Anderson eventually admitted that he failed to move his head, although he seemed hesitant to call that an experience issue.
It is easier to recognize another fighter’s mistakes than confront your own. Bakole did not beat Anderson solely because of problems outside the ring. He exposed defensive habits and punished Anderson for remaining directly in front of a stronger, more seasoned heavyweight.
Itauma’s defeat was also more than a conditioning failure. His pacing, punch selection, and inability to change tactics all contributed to his collapse. The gas tank emptied because he fought as if every attack had to produce a knockout.
Anderson and Itauma now require the type of developmental fights they were rushed past.
The first stage should allow them to work behind the jab and control rounds without chasing an early finish. A second fight against a durable opponent would test their patience and conditioning. The third should provide resistance from someone capable of punishing mistakes without presenting the same danger as Bakole or Hrgovic.
Neither man needs another carefully selected opponent who disappears after absorbing the first clean combination. That would rebuild the knockout statistics without fixing anything.
Anderson has fought only once since losing to Bakole. His planned May return against Solomon Dacres was canceled after he suffered a biceps injury in April, but the 26-year-old says he has recovered and wants to fight again before the end of the year. He believes a future meeting with Itauma remains possible.
“We can be like three fights away from facing each other,” Anderson said. “They already had us on a path to fighting each other, and we were being lined up behind the scenes. We can still build up to it, I definitely see us crossing paths and bumping heads in the near future.”
An Anderson-Itauma fight would be more interesting after their defeats. Instead of two protected prospects trying to preserve perfect records, it would feature two damaged punchers attempting to prove that their first major failures did not define them.
Three rebuilding fights apiece would also give both time to correct their flaws. If the same defensive and pacing mistakes remain, their eventual meeting would become less about redemption and more about which fighter cracks again first.
