Johnny Nelson believes British heavyweight world championship hope Moses Itauma faces a crucial crossroads in his career as he attempts to bounce back from his first professional defeat at the hands of Filip Hrgovic.
The Queensberry sensation had been tipped to capture blue-riband division gold in double-quick time after steamrolling his way through his opening 14 opponents within the paid ranks.
However, his charge towards a world title came to a crashing halt last month when the tried and tested Hrgovic produced a sensational ninth round stoppage to inflict the first telling blow upon the 21-year-old's career.
Victory for Itauma against the Croatian would have secured him the vacant IBF belt and propelled him into pole position for lucrative and high-profile future unification bouts.
But, following defeat, Itauma now has to work his way back up the ladder whilst also coming to terms with relinquishing his previously unbeaten record; a challenge that Nelson feels he can overcome.
"The true work comes now with how he comes back from it [his first loss]," he said on his own podcast, 'That Boxing Show with Johnny Nelson'.
The true work is how he deals with it. The true work is whether he can emotionally cut himself off from all of those lovely things that everybody said the day before, to all of the negative things that everybody is saying now.
- Johnny Nelson (That Boxing Show with Johnny Nelson)
"This is the hard bit of the fight, it’s not just about putting the gloves on and hitting the bags.
"He is going to think, ‘What did I neglect? I have got to get used to doing more rounds, I have got to get used to X,Y,Z. I have got to look at all of these things’ – that is the aftermath, that is the hard bit that Moses has got to deal with it.
"I still think that this young man is a very, very talented potential world champion but the hope with him was to become an IBF world champion at 21 years old and it was not to be."
He added: "Will he become a world champion eventually? Yes, it will be, but just not yet."
