Hrgovic stopped an exhausted Itauma in the ninth round of their dramatic IBF heavyweight title fight in London on August 29.

Once the inquest into the defeat began, fingers were immediately pointed at Itauma’s training team due to a perceived lack of conditioning for a championship fight. A viral clip of the 21-year-old admitting he'd never done 12 rounds of sparring in a row did not help, although it has since emerged that he definitely has.

Now Hrgovic, 34, has waded into the debate on Itauma’s preparation and suggested the southpaw from Chatham, Kent has got the make-up of his team wrong.

Hrgovic said: “He's surrounded with like 10,000 yes-men and nutritionists and coaches for this, coaches for that, a coach for sleeping, a coach for I don't know what.

“But you can't get ready for this kind of fight, for a war, in that way and I think that was the difference in our fight.”

In June, when the pair officially kicked off the promotion for their fight, Hrgovic labelled Itauma a “new-school fighter” who greets the sun and kisses trees in the morning. The Croatian also seemed to draw a lot from the fact that Itauma had a water bottle with him that day.

“Remember I told you before the fight that he does a lot of bullshit,” Hrgovic added. “He was drinking water when we were at that press day. You just need to go through hell to get ready for the fight and that’s what I told Itauma; he’s drinking water, hugging a tree in the morning, saying hello to the sun.

You need to go through that ruthless training camp to not only be physically ready, but to be mentally ready. I think this new generation of fighters and a lot of fighters who make a lot of money forgot about that. They surround themselves with yes men. They don't have this strict guy, a strict coach. They don't want to be in that strict environment.

“A lot of this young generation believe in nutritionists, they believe in psychologists, they believe in, I don't know, yoga, pilates and bull—t. But there are no shortcuts and there is no bull——g in this sport.”

Hrgovic insists there were simply no shortcuts available to him under Abel Sanchez up Big Bear, California during his own training camp. The heavyweight linked up with Sanchez in 2024 following his defeat to Daniel Dubois in June of that year and has won four times since.

“He made a big impact on me because he got me back to the basics,” Hrgovic (21-1, 16 KOs) said. “He's old school. It’s a simple but very hard routine in Big Bear isolation and he reminded me how boxing is simple and how important it is to have that old school guy who's not going to tell you nice things, who's not going to tell you what you like to hear.

“He’s not going to be your friend but your coach and you need to have that guy who you will respect. If you tell him today ‘I'm tired, can I only do eight rounds of instead of 10?’ He'll tell you, ‘no, f—k off, you little d——d. You're going to do 10 rounds.’”

Itauma has been trained by Ben Davison since March 2024 and the 21-year-old has previously described how the Essex-based coach reignited his love for the sport. As part of their preparation for the clash, the pair, along with a number of other boxers from the gym, did a “pre-season training camp” in Marbella, Spain.

But Davison has since come under fire for his role in Itauma’s capitulation at O2 Arena, which cost his fighter the chance to be the second-youngest world heavyweight champion in history. Even promoter Frank Warren declared the whole team need a meeting to work out what changes can be made to ensure Itauma, who left the arena on a stretcher, can bounce back from the defeat.

Hrgovic said: “You need to have that coach who's strict. At 34, I can't learn so much about boxing anymore but Abel got me back to the basics. He was that guy who's strict.

“With some previous coaches maybe at some point you get relaxed, you know everything, you are smart, you made some money and you start acting like a smart guy. That's a downfall for fighters and I think old school is the best school and you just need to go through hell to get ready for the fight.

“I went through an old school training camp hard, very hard and he trained where? In Marbella with 10,000 yes-men around him.

“That's also the difference between me and him; I went through hell.”