Itauma was a red hot favorite to beat Hrgovic and claim the vacant IBF heavyweight title at 02 Arena but came unstuck after dominating the first eight rounds.

Now, while Hrgovic prepares for the first defense of his new belt, it is back to the drawing board for 21-year-old Itauma and his promoter Frank Warren.

The Queensberry head confirmed it is very unlikely that Itauma (14-1, 12 KOs) will box again this year with a January return pencilled in.

“It will be January, if not before,” Warren said during a roundtable discussion with British journalists. “But January is looking like the month. He wants to get back into the swing of things.

“We want to get him out as soon as possible. He wants to get back in the mix and be part of what's happening next year.

“I had a very constructive meeting with him and the team a couple of weeks ago. Now we've got to put into practise what we were talking about and the lessons to be learned.”

Itauma dropped to No. 8 in The Ring’s heavyweight rankings as a result of his first career defeat while 34-year-old Hrgovic is now No. 4.

The pair were cleared to box for the IBF title vacated by Oleksandr Usyk after Frank Sanchez, the No. 1 contender, agreed to step aside.

However, per the terms of that agreement, Hrgovic must face the Cuban, ranked at No. 6 by The Ring, in his next fight which ruled out an immediate rematch with Itauma.

Warren said: “Moses wanted a rematch with Hrgovic but that couldn't be done because obviously Filip has got Frank Sanchez next.

“We're looking at a couple of things at the moment and I'm quite confident that everybody will be happy with what we're going to do.”

When asked if he could name any potential opponents for Itauma’s comeback fight, Warren said: “I would like him to be in with somebody, a name to start with.

“I just want to get him out there and start the new year strong for him so he can focus on what he wants to do, which is to win a world title. He wasn't far off it.

“I believe 98 per cent of the heavyweights in the world would have been stopped by him that night but he just didn’t manage the fight correctly at the end of it.

“He’s a smart young man, I think he learned from it and it will stand him in good stead. In some ways, out of bad comes good. It’s a lesson learned and it gives him experience.”