The Croatian turned the division on its head Saturday by scoring a crushing come-from-behind, ninth-round stoppage win against Moses Itauma for the IBF crown after losing nearly the entire fight before Itauma's gas tank ran dry.

Hrgovic next has to face IBF mandatory challenger Frank Sanchez, but he immediately said he's more interested in offering Sanchez a step-aside fee to land more meaningful title unification matchups.

High atop Hrgovic's list are a rematch against WBO titlist Daniel Dubois, who handed Hrgovic the lone loss of his career in 2024, and WBC champion Agit Kabayel.

Dubois and Kabayel were ringside at London's O2 Arena to witness the shocking result over the weekend. Dubois was there to announce his October 17 rematch in the same venue against Fabio Wardley, while Kabayel was on site as a highly interested observer, certainly wondering what's next for him.

"No [I was not shocked by Hrgovic's performance]," Kabayel told The Ring. "I was looking to see what Itauma had left after seven, eight rounds – you saw. He was very tired. The experience for him, and not having too many rounds in his career, this was the result.

"When I gave my prediction for the fight, I thought Itauma was going to win. On fight week, I saw that Hrgovic was in shape. You saw that he trained very hard for the fight and he won. The experience for Itauma was not too much to face someone like Hrgovic, who's fought so many big guys in his career.

"Yes, definitely it was [too much too soon]. It was two-to-three fights too early for him."

There are a host of contenders clamoring for Kabayel's crown, but he's more looking forward to an all-European clash against Hrgovic that would feature champions from Germany and Croatia.

"I'm not interested in these [other] guys; I think the better fight is Kabayel versus Hrgovic," Kabayel said.

Kabayel (27-0, 19 KOs) has been in a holding pattern ever since stopping Damian Knyba in just three rounds during a January homecoming in Oberhausen following an impressive three-fight stoppage streak against Arslanbek Makhmudov, Frank Sanchez and Zhilei Zhang.

In June, Kabayel was elevated by the WBC from its interim champion to the full title after Ring champion Oleksandr Usyk vacated his IBF, WBA and WBC titles.