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Nigerian born British Moses Itauma’s world-title collapsed in the early hours of today, Sunday, August 30, 2026 (Nigerian Time) as he appeared to punch himself out in an extraordinary heavyweight contest against underdog Filip Hrgovic in London.

Itauma, 21, controlled most of the fight and scored a second-round knockdown but faded as his relentless output caught up with him.

Hrgovic weathered the storm and piled on the pressure in the ninth. With Itauma barely able to stand, his legs unsteady and body swaying before slumping in the corner, his team threw in the towel.

Itauma – who needed medical attention before leaving the arena on a stretcher – had been a heavy favourite after tearing through his first 14 opponents and was spoken about as heavyweight boxing’s next superstar.

“He is the best I have been in the ring with, but he needs more experience. I knew I was losing the round, but I knew that I had the pace in my favour. He needs more experience, but he is one of a kind,” Hrgovic said.

“From the first round, I saw his gassing out. He started fast. I knew he was going to gas out. I knew when my chance came I needed to push. That is what I did.”

With the vacant IBF title on the line, victory would have made Itauma the second-youngest world champion in the division’s history.

Instead, his inexperience began to show as his Croatian opponent – an Olympic bronze medallist whose only previous professional defeat came against Daniel Dubois – survived everything Itauma threw at him before completing a remarkable turnaround.

Hrgovic’s remarkable turnaround as Itauma shows inexperience
Hrgovic – wearing the red and white checks of his country – made his entrance first to a wall of boos, before the mood inside the O2 Arena flipped as Itauma emerged to a huge roar – taking his time and soaking up the reception.

The crowd had made its allegiances clear after a fiery build-up which included Itauma shoving Hrgovic, the Zagreb man slapping him back and plenty of verbal sparring.

Itauma came out with real intent, landing straight lefts from his southpaw stance. Hrgovic is known for his durability but struggled to keep pace with the Briton’s speed early on.

Early in the second, a right hook knocked Hrgovic off-balance and his glove touched the canvas. Oasis star Noel Gallagher and boxing legend Prince Naseem Hamed were among those watching as the crowd gasped at almost every Itauma punch, whether it landed or not.

But by the end of the third, Itauma – who had boxed just 26 professional rounds before his first world-title fight – was already breathing heavily.

There had also been questions over his chin, simply because it had never really been tested. Hrgovic began landing the occasional heavy shot but Itauma took them well and fired straight back.

A fight in the crowd momentarily took attention away from the action in the fifth before an Itauma uppercut in the closing seconds brought the focus back to the ring.

Itauma continued to fire combinations but Hrgovic was barely budging. A huge right landed on the bell in the sixth and another followed in the seventh, yet the Croatian simply walked through them.

The Briton was well ahead but, rather than box his way towards victory, he continued to chase the knockout. A flurry in the eighth backed Hrgovic on to the ropes and had him in trouble, but Itauma was grimacing between exchanges and looking increasingly spent.

By now the danger was clear. Hrgovic came out with renewed purpose in the ninth and landed a thudding right which sent Itauma staggering backwards, almost through the ropes.

The youngster somehow stayed upright but his legs had gone. Hrgovic continued to press and when Itauma slumped into his corner, exhausted and barely able to defend himself, referee Howard Foster waved off the contest as the towel came in.

Hrgovic admitted he had been “outboxed” but leaves London as Croatia’s first heavyweight world champion, with Frank Sanchez waiting as the IBF mandatory challenger.

A unification fight could follow, with Daniel Dubois holding the WBO title and set to face Fabio Wardley again in October.

For Itauma, this was supposed to be a coronation.

Instead, he leaves the O2 Arena with questions over whether the step up came too soon.

He has time to rebuild and there will be a strong feeling that, with a little more experience, this night could have ended very differently.

Londoner Dubois was stopped by Joe Joyce as an unbeaten 23-year-old before going on to become a two-time world champion. Itauma has even more time on his side.

“He’s an amazing fighter,” Hrgovic said. “I am the present. He is definitely the future.”

Promoter Frank Warren suggested Itauma was carrying a leg injury in the final round but backed him to return.

“Moses gave everything,” he added. “He has to go back to the drawing board and he can come again.”

The expectation around Itauma will not disappear entirely overnight but the aura of invincibility has gone.

BBC

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Mutinying soldiers led armed clashes in Niamey, Niger’s capital, on Saturday, shocking residents, but the junta said it had largely wrested back control after hours of heavy exchanges around some of its most sensitive sites.

But while the fighting had subsided later Saturday, the rebel troops were said by a regional security source and an African diplomatic source to still be holding two barracks around Niamey, including one at a large air base near the capital’s airport.

When the fighting broke out, shortly after midnight, soldiers blocked access to the presidential palace and to the national television station, Tele Sahel, which went off the air for just over an hour, before being restored around 10:00 am (0900 GMT).

Niger’s junta later declared, in a statement read on state television, that it “gradually took back control” after hours of clashes.

“There was an attempt by insurgents from the Nigerien armed forces to enter the presidential palace,” a security source said, adding that “they were pushed back by the presidential guard”.

Niger’s defence minister, General Salifou Mody, said in the statement on state television that a group of soldiers held some troops hostage at a barracks in Niamey and opened fire at “certain sensitive sites” in the city, without specifying which ones.

“The prompt reaction of the defence and security forces made it possible to contain this heated moment, and they gradually took back control of these sites,” he added.

Mody’s statement called on the population to “remain calm and freely go about their business”.

Niger has been ruled for three years by a military junta led by General Abdourahamane Tiani that has struggled to contain jihadist violence flaring in the west African country for around a decade.

“Everything is calm again, we can’t hear any more shooting,” a resident of the Yantala district close to the presidential palace said late Saturday morning.

The gunfire began in the early hours of Saturday morning, prompting the military to issue a statement on its social media pages urging people to stay calm and “avoid sharing unverified information”.

“Our defence and security forces have been mobilised for the defence of the homeland,” the statement said.

One resident said that there was “heavy gunfire and explosions” at Base 101 in Niamey, a claim confirmed by several other witnesses.

Junta supporters called for “sincere patriots” to demonstrate in support of the authorities at a major Niamey square.

By late afternoon, a few dozen people had converged on the square, where military music praising General Tiani was playing while a platform intended for speeches was being set up.

Neighbouring Algeria condemned Saturday’s events and pledged support for the Niamey government.

The first shots were heard at about 1 a.m. local time and continued until daybreak, according to a video published by a local journalist filming the area around the airport.

Another resident said he heard “bursts of gunfire” at about 7:00 am local time, adding that the weapons heard “are not the kind that terrorists on motorbikes can carry”.

“I went to get credit for my phone. I saw a military vehicle heading towards the base that had to turn back,” he said.

Another resident in the west of Niamey said he heard sporadic small-arms fire at about 5:00 am.

Videos online showed armoured vehicles deployed to reinforce the neighbourhood near the airport.

Rival Jihadist Groups

Niamey airport has been targeted twice this year by jihadists, first by the Islamic State in the Sahel (EIS) in January, then in late June by its rival, the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), the Sahel branch of Al-Qaeda.

The jihadist groups not only target civilians and the military but are also struggling for dominance over each other in the Sahel, and especially in Niger.

Twenty assailants were killed and four soldiers wounded in the January assault, authorities said at the time.

In June, at least 11 soldiers and two civilians were killed, as well as 22 attackers, according to the defence ministry. Both attacks were repelled by the army.

The EIS and JNIM are also active in neighbouring allies Burkina Faso and Mali, which are also ruled by military juntas that seized power in coups.

The three countries quit the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) bloc, turned their backs on traditional Western partners in the fight against jihadist violence, especially France, and sought closer ties with Russia.

Air Force Base 101, located within the international airport complex, is home to the headquarters of Russia’s Africa Corps in Niamey and the command of the unified force of the Alliance of Sahel States, of which Niger is a member with Burkina Faso and Mali.

The site is sensitive. Between December and January, it hosted a large shipment of uranium concentrate, which was held up while awaiting export. No movement of the shipment has been identified since.

AFP

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The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has published the credentials and other particulars of all the governorship and House of Assembly candidates submitted to the commission by their various political parties for the forthcoming general elections.

A scrutiny of the Form EC-9 containing the credentials and pasted at the commission’s office along Aba Road, Port Harcourt, showed that 19 governorship candidates had been accepted by INEC to contest the Rivers election.

The names of the candidates, their ages, political parties, their educational backgrounds and other credentials were displayed at the commission’s office.

Also published in the forms were the deputy governorship candidates of each party apart from those of the Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC) and the Boot Party (BP) whose forms EC-9 could not be seen where others were displayed.

Rep Ogundu Kingsley Chinda, the APC flag bearer, Lulu-Briggs Dumo Owukor, the candidate of the NDC while the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and his running mate were listed as Gabriel Pidomson and Okumgba David Amapakaye.

Other governorship candidates and their running mates are the PDP, Ejekwu Samuel Soni and Ehuwa Kabaka; Accord, Chibuzor Rani and Davies Ikubogh; APP, Tata Kenneth and Dappa Kelvin; ADP, Lawson Angel and Azunwena Regina; BP, Benjamin Oli, no deputy; DLA, Warighani Zebulum and Joseph Udo; NRM, Minaibim Harry and Iwedi Ogonda Ada; SDP, Azimiku Gidiom and Ogochukwu Hekerem; PRP, Kiegha Nature Dumale and Membere Deborah.

Others are ZLP, Harry Victor Godwin and Agumba Nnamdi; APGA, Obu Omangima and John-Woke Geraldine; AAC, West Ivy and Eletuo Ijendu; AA, Eke Benjamin Israel and Awortu Charles; NNPP, Abiye Georgewell and Gbimadee Raymond; YPP, Johnbull Obrasu and Taagaloobari Celestine; APM, Whyte Churchill and Bardom Zaavalo.

INEC also displayed the forms EC-9 of the House of Assembly candidates for the 2027 general elections with few parties fielding candidates for all 32 state constituencies in Rivers.

While the PDP, the NDC and ADC produced candidates for all the constituencies, other parties such as AA had 29; APP, 29; NRM, 15; ZLP, 20; BP, 3; AAC, 1; LP, 13; YPP, 26; PRP, 13; DLA, 20; SDP, 31; ADP, 14 among others. (The Nation)