David Haye says Moses Itauma needs Andy Ruiz Jr after Filip Hrgovic loss
The former two-division world champion wants Itauma, who is set to return in the first quarter of 2027, to face the man who stopped Anthony Joshua in 2019.
David Haye has named Andy Ruiz Jr as the opponent Moses Itauma should face when he returns from his first professional defeat.
Itauma, 21, was stopped by Filip Hrgovic in the ninth round in August, with the vacant IBF heavyweight title at stake. Victory would have made him the youngest world heavyweight champion since Mike Tyson beat Trevor Berbick in 1986. Itauma is set to box again in the first quarter of 2027, while Hrgovic is expected to face his mandatory challenger, Frank Sanchez, early next year.
Ruiz, who stopped Anthony Joshua in the seventh round in 2019, lost a unanimous decision to Damian Knyba in September.
Haye told Tris Dixon that Itauma needs a former heavyweight champion who is hungry, applies pressure with high volume, will make him uncomfortable and will not be knocked out by a single punch. Haye said: “That’s the type of fighter he needs to grow. He needs the fear factor.” Haye has his own experience of the problem Itauma faced in the later rounds against Hrgovic, having been stopped in the fifth round by Carl Thompson in 2004.
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