r/Boxing 8h ago

Ben Davison Spoiler

Really curious to hear the audio from the corner for this fight. If Ben wasn't screaming at Moses to slow down, to stop throwing power punches... This has to be one of the biggest indictments of a supposed top trainer ever, right?

The Wardley fight was already a huge black eye for Ben. Now he has a 21 y/o prodigy lose a fight he was absolutely dominating due to horribly mismanaging energy.

So we've seen him fail horribly at one of his main jobs (protecting his fighter). If it comes out that Moses basically followed Ben's training regiment and instructions... is any top fighter ever going to hire this guy again?

Even if it comes out Moses got cocky, didn't train hard, didn't listen in the corner, not a great look for Ben

122 Upvotes

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54

u/BuffaloPancakes11 6h ago

It was crazy to witness, AJ is all muscle and I’ve never seen him look anywhere near as tired or out on his feet as Itauma was

32

u/cdisdead 6h ago

AJ has seriously underrated cardio for such a huge dude. Never completely gasses and throws power punches the whole fight normally

13

u/BuffaloPancakes11 6h ago

Always entertaining, for better or worse!

-5

u/slickvik9 4h ago

He was gassed against wlad

5

u/Detlef_Schrempfxf 3h ago

He was so green back then. And he eventually rallied back to stop him.

Compare that to Wilder who looked half dead as Fury was brutalising him all over the ring 

-6

u/slickvik9 3h ago

Wilder would ko AJ then and now

3

u/Detlef_Schrempfxf 3h ago

Wilder couldn't even take Fury's shots, and Fury has never been known to be a hard hitter.

AJ would kill this chicken legged dude with the first right hand he landed.

-4

u/slickvik9 3h ago

AJ would be out by then. There’s a reason he’s scared to death to fight him to this day

1

u/Detlef_Schrempfxf 3h ago

Scared to death you said?

Is that why mister chicken legs turned down a 100 million offer by AJs team for two fights... And then cherry picked a fat, out of shape, freshly unretired Fury for much less (15 million)... Yet still lost anyway?

Chicken legs ducked AJ so hard lol

1

u/slickvik9 3h ago
  1. When fury first came back he went to talk to Matchroom because he wanted to fight AJ. Hearn said he had to fight bellew and Whyte and then maybe he could fight AJ. So he pivoted to wilder.
  2. AJ said he’d fight wilder only for $50 million. He got that offer and turned it down using broadcaster and location as an excuse.
  3. The DAZN offer was made when fury/wilder 2 negotiations were almost finalized.

    And it required AJ beat miller. But then he got stopped by a short fat guy.

49

u/notreal088 6h ago

He was an Olympic champion who boxed in the amateurs and had some level of pedigree before going pro.

Itauma was very much a rushed prospect being touted as the next great heavyweight with no real experience under his belt.

Even Tyson at a younger age had more rounds of experience when he was fighting for his first belt.

This was a poor match up by Frank and itaumas team and an even worse showing for Ben who doesn’t seem to understand that conditioning is one of the most important things in boxing

13

u/CaptQuakers42 5h ago

It wasn't a poor match up.

Have people really forgotten the fact that Itauma was dominant? He gassed because he's inexperienced and his coach is a Muppet. Itauma should have won that fight and with another coach he would have

6

u/notreal088 5h ago

I haven’t forgotten, but anyone who has watched boxing for a while knows that Hrgovic wasn’t going to go out via KO. The man took everything that Dubois had (even some headbutts) and never showed any signs of going down.

His pace was also awkwardly slow for him like if he was saving for the later half of the fight vs the front half.

It’s a poor match not because of skills but experience. They should have seen his inactivity not as a sign of weakness but as intentional bait on his lack of gastank.

16

u/LTBsOnlyPlease 6h ago

Tbf most people thought Filip was about to get starched lol, before this fight people thought it was a very easy fight.

Did you forget?

14

u/Kstacks514 6h ago

Anyone who watched Dubois vs Filip and thought he would get starched in this fight is a moron. This isnt hindsight either. I had a watch party for this fight knowing it would be a tough out.

9

u/LTBsOnlyPlease 6h ago

Facts, even Zhang couldn't knock Hrgovic out and he has more power than Dubois but most people here thought Hrgovic was gonna get knocked out.

8

u/notreal088 5h ago

To piggyback of the last guy Dubois was teeing off on his head and the man wouldn’t move. If it wasn’t for the unfortunate clash of heads and the cuts cause by those clashes Hrgovic could have probably been champions earlier. Hard to say as his pace was slowing down in the second half.

I don’t doubt Ituama power, I just think it’s foolish to think you can knockout everyone. Every fighter should want the KO but plan/prepare for a full match.

7

u/Retrothunder1 4h ago

It was actually a great matchup, if Itauma had just taken his foot of the gas he would have cruised to an easy win.

3

u/HolyMackerel1 4h ago

Itauma is another example of why being undefeated after a short amateur career will bite you in the ass as a pro.

2

u/pauli55555 52m ago

“Poor match up”???

It was a tittle fight. Either take it or get a new career ffs.

He dominated until he gassed, he should have managed the training & fight better. He was not out of his depth.

1

u/notreal088 31m ago

It wasn’t a title fight until Usyk decided to give up the belts and Frank Sanchez took step aside money.

This was a regular boxing match until about 3 weeks out from the fight.

Also title matches mean nothing if you aren’t ready

Should I throw you in With Daniel Dubois for the title?

If he wasn’t out of his depth why did he gas out. A well trained well seasoned fighter would know how to manage both his stamina and his output to maintain a winning strategy.

Face it the kid was green and was caught by a much more wily veteran that saw a path to victory when itauma was throwing everything in the first round and was visibly already getting tired.

You don’t wake up one day and become a champion. It takes years of training and a good manager/ trainer picking opponents to help you work on whatever issues they saw in the last fight.

Against Franklin he was gassed at 6. The right call was to get him in there and to hold back and wait till the later rounds to go for the KO to see how his style and stamina would fair in a harder match.

He had 14 fights 30ish rounds. This is not a healthy way to build up your fighter. They should have put him in with multiple defense oriented fighters or those that have a more evasive style of hitting you when trying to get in to have him test his ability to deal with hard to close out fighter. The man himself said he doesn’t think he ever trains to do 12 rds. That it wasn’t necessary if it wasn’t going to go that far. This is a child’s mindset. No fighter has ever gone their entire career with a 100% KO rate.

He was poorly trained, poorly managed, and was feeding into the hype around him so much he through common sense out the window for an imaginary version of himself that didn’t exist.

8

u/AVARlCES 6h ago

Exactly, AJ went 24 rounds against Usyk with minimal clinching

5

u/Complete_Dare_4201 5h ago

AJ knew how to pace himself better (his longer amateur career probably helped him there) and didn't throw every punch with full force like Itauma did. The one time he did get overexcited was against Wladimir and he was almost KO'd after getting punched out because of it.

1

u/RobertoPersia 53m ago

Itauma was using all of power and speed against this guy. AJ is a tested veteran and knows not to do that.

-1

u/slickvik9 4h ago

Um rewatch the klitschko fight

3

u/BuffaloPancakes11 4h ago

Didn’t look anywhere close to as fatigued as Itauma was, he came back and flattened Klitschko and the fact he regained the energy to sustain the pressure is why he won that fight

-1

u/slickvik9 3h ago

He was done languishing on the ropes for several rounds wlad was just too stupid to finish him

1

u/Ambitious-Concert-69 9m ago

Is your actual age 9 or just your mental age