The newly crowned IBF champion is, of course, concerned more with the impact his huge upset victory will have on his own financial future.

“Next I want unifications,” Hrgovic told The Ring’s Louis Hart during an interview in his dressing room at O2 Arena. “I want big paydays. And I want a percentage from pay-per-view, because I saw this fight.”

Hrgovic, who won by ninth-round technical knockout, is contractually obligated to face Frank Sanchez next because the Cuban accepted a seven-figure step-aside fee that enabled this bout for the unclaimed IBF belt. Croatia’s Hrgovic suggested in the ring that Sanchez (26-1, 19 KOs) should accept another handsome sum to allow him to pursue title unification clashes.

Oleksandr Usyk still owns The Ring belt, but the former fully unified champion no longer owns crowns from the sanctioning bodies. Murat Gassiev holds the WBA belt, Agit Kabayel is the WBC champ and Daniel Dubois is the WBO titleholder.

London’s Dubois (23-3, 22 KOs) is the only opponent to defeat Hrgovic (21-1, 16 KOs), who he stopped in the eighth round due to cuts over both of his eyes in June 2024 to win the IBF interim championship.

Itauma (14-1, 12 KOs) couldn’t finish Hrgovic, even though the southpaw from Kent recorded a flash knockdown during the second round and landed numerous flush punches on the durable underdog. Hrgovic never stopped believing he would win in a main event DAZN streamed globally, in part because the 2016 Olympic silver medalist realized Itauma grew tired the deeper into their scheduled 12-round fight they went.

“I saw he was gassing out,” Hrgovic said. “He was throwing a lot of punches, he was breathing hard. Since [the] first round he was breathing hard and I saw he’s gassing out, and I knew I need to stay there and to try to knock him out in [the] late rounds, when he gas out, and that’s what I did.”

Hrgovic gave Itauma credit for his superior speed and admitted the 21-year-old was better than he expected. Hrgovic, 34, also recognized that he was losing their fight decisively before Itauma faded.

“I shook up the world,” he said. “I shook up the world. I came to his hometown, against all odds. Everyone thought he gonna knock me out in a few rounds and he was the most talented guy in the division, everyone was avoiding him. And I just had that belief in myself that I gonna beat him. Since we started, since this fight was offered to me, I just believed. I didn’t know how, I just believed I gonna beat him.”