Confessions of a Not-So-Dangerous Mind*
Aug 31, 2026 · 24 min · 10 segments
21 y.o. Moses Itauma's first professional defeat came at the hands of rugged veteran Filip Hrgovic in a fight the rising star was dominating... until he wasn't.
But the thing with boxing there's so point to to illustrate something you know that we're trying to explain or unless I say a little bit of a kind of historical imperative if you will but it's not it's not the first time that a young fighter or a fighter on the rise just kind of hit the wall train to pace himself you could also train to pace yourself and still run out of steam like that's also possible but there are certain fighters who only know one way to go and that's full out from the opening bell and you know for example you look at Mike Tyson when he was on his way up and Tyson was a guy who he didn't have that many difficult fights as Moses Itama in his early career You know, Dylan White maybe cracked him a couple of times, but you can't say, at least in my opinion, he had not been in any deep water fights or a fight with somebody like Hergovich who had the capability that even if the fight proper was not, you know, who's winning the fight, who's ahead in rounds.
and just keep being present in the fight and being dangerous, a big guy who can punch, as we saw.
And there's no way to know what a fighter is going to do when they get into the deep water of a longer fight.
There are fights where maybe knockdowns back and forth or the favorite gets hit hard early and then struggles to kind of, you know, make a comeback.
Remember Shane Mosley all those years ago against Vernon Forrest where he barely survived the first round and it was pretty impressive that he was even able to be competitive later in the fight.
In the case of this fight in particular, I thought Moses won the first six rounds.
And, you know, in a different version of the Matrix, maybe he trains to not go full out to try to take Hergovich out early.
That maybe there's some kind of a process where he's going to have certain rounds where he's just going to look to use the jab but not load up and try to keep distance and to sort of keep his cardio, you know, that he's not going to crash out towards the end.
But just for perspective... are other great fighters who seem to hit the wall in certain fights and um carl frock you know the cobra tremendous tremendous fighter he talked about a fight that i was not really familiar with when david haye was on the rise and he went against was it keith thompson i know the guy's last name is thompson who was an older fighter still dangerous and he just it seemed to run out of gas and you know vladimir klitschko's first loss against ross purdy Was it Purdy? I don't remember if his name was pronounced Purdy or Purity.
And, you know, you get to like the ninth or tenth round and he's huffing and puffing.
And it's like, if this guy stands on his feet and shows any kind of offense, Vlad's going to get stopped.
There are some thoroughbreds who are trained in a certain fashion and others who aren't.
And then there are mindsets from the trainer perspective that you don't hear about very much.
And you may not even learn of them until later in somebody's career or in some instances after somebody's career.
But the thing with boxing there's so point to to illustrate something you know that we're trying to explain or unless I say a little bit of a kind of historical imperative if you will but it's not it's not the first time that a young fighter or a fighter on the rise just kind of hit the wall train to pace himself you could also train to pace yourself and still run out of steam like that's also possible but there are certain fighters who only know one way to go and that's full out from the opening bell and you know for example you look at Mike Tyson when he was on his way up and Tyson was a guy who he didn't have that many difficult fights as Moses Itama in his early career You know, Dylan White maybe cracked him a couple of times, but you can't say, at least in my opinion, he had not been in any deep water fights or a fight with somebody like Hergovich who had the capability that even if the fight proper was not, you know, who's winning the fight, who's ahead in rounds.
and just keep being present in the fight and being dangerous, a big guy who can punch, as we saw.
And there's no way to know what a fighter is going to do when they get into the deep water of a longer fight.
There are fights where maybe knockdowns back and forth or the favorite gets hit hard early and then struggles to kind of, you know, make a comeback.
Remember Shane Mosley all those years ago against Vernon Forrest where he barely survived the first round and it was pretty impressive that he was even able to be competitive later in the fight.
In the case of this fight in particular, I thought Moses won the first six rounds.
And, you know, in a different version of the Matrix, maybe he trains to not go full out to try to take Hergovich out early.
That maybe there's some kind of a process where he's going to have certain rounds where he's just going to look to use the jab but not load up and try to keep distance and to sort of keep his cardio, you know, that he's not going to crash out towards the end.
But just for perspective... are other great fighters who seem to hit the wall in certain fights and um carl frock you know the cobra tremendous tremendous fighter he talked about a fight that i was not really familiar with when david haye was on the rise and he went against was it keith thompson i know the guy's last name is thompson who was an older fighter still dangerous and he just it seemed to run out of gas and you know vladimir klitschko's first loss against ross purdy Was it Purdy? I don't remember if his name was pronounced Purdy or Purity.
And, you know, you get to like the ninth or tenth round and he's huffing and puffing.
And it's like, if this guy stands on his feet and shows any kind of offense, Vlad's going to get stopped.
There are some thoroughbreds who are trained in a certain fashion and others who aren't.
And then there are mindsets from the trainer perspective that you don't hear about very much.
And you may not even learn of them until later in somebody's career or in some instances after somebody's career.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.