The Croatian was hit so hard and so often by the red-hot favorite in London last month that he could not shake the headache until the following Wednesday.

Following the stunning ninth-round turnaround victory, a tired Hrgovic was not even able to toast his new IBF world heavyweight title with a customary post-victory McDonalds.

Two of the three ringside judges had Itauma 8-0 up at the time of the stoppage and Hrgovic admitted he was being completely outboxed by the 21-year-old southpaw before a sharp turn in fortunes.

As such, the 34-year-old believes the hype around Itauma (14-1, 12 KOs) and is convinced he's capable of going the rest of his career without another defeat.

“It will be a hard journey to come back but if he recovers and comes back mentally strong, I think nobody will ever beat him again,” Hrgovic told a media roundtable on Wednesday.

“I'm a man who is hard to beat so I think on that night he would beat anyone except myself. He's good, really good.

“I think he is a special kid; very fast, very talented and he countered whatever I tried. He countered me with his speed and timing so he took my security to throw more.

“I was not feeling confident to throw more because he was countering me very well. I have never been in a ring with such a fast guy and talented kid.

“You have some fast guys but they're small heavyweights. They're fast because they're small, because they maybe came from cruiserweight or something so you can handle them with your power.

“But this kid is fast and also big. He’s got great IQ and great talent. So if he recovers from this loss mentally, I think it's hard that anyone else will beat him ever, ever again.”

Hrgovic knows personally how hard it is to recover from your first career defeat. When stopped on cuts by Daniel Dubois in June 2024, he considered retirement after feeling so humiliated.

He has roared back since that defeat with four straight victories against British heavyweights, culminating with his glorious night at London’s 02.

But can Itauma, who was stopped on his feet through sheer exhaustion, do the same? “We'll see,” Hrgovic says.

“It was a big shock for him and a big humiliation so maybe it's the end of his career if he's not mentally tough. A lot of people after that kind of loss never come back. So it will be a hard journey for him. But if he recovers and does not lose his confidence, I think with this experience, what he gained from this fight, it will make him unbeatable.”

Hrgovic made history by becoming Croatia’s first heavyweight champion and revealed that the extent of his celebration once he got back home would be to sit in a chair and look at his belt.

But the victory had taken so much out of him that he had to cancel his more immediate post-fight plan.

“I didn't celebrate,” he said. “I just went home to rest. I was really tired and had received a lot of shots. It was a hard fight. So I didn't even do my tradition after a win. Every time when I win, I go to McDonald's after but didn't have the strength to do that.

“In the days after the fight I felt f—-d up. I received a lot of shots and was bruised. I had a headache for a few days. On the Wednesday after the fight, I was in the gym working out already but for a few days I felt really tired and bruised with some headache.

“I still didn't watch the fight back. I just watched a few short clips on the Internet, but not the whole fight. Inside, I'm still kind of angry.

“I'm happy and proud of myself but angry because he outboxed me in the first rounds. I didn't expect it because throughout my whole my career, 20 years in boxing, I was never outboxed in any sparring, in any fight. I was always competitive.

“But this time I was there and this kid outboxed me. I still have that feeling, a little bit angry at myself that I allowed him to outbox me.”