Moses Itauma, Sebastian Fundora and a loaded boxing weekend: 5 things to watch

If we’re talking triple jump analogies — and why wouldn’t we be talking triple jump analogies?! — then consider this weekend’s boxing action as the performative hand clap each athlete does at the start of their mark before hurtling down the runway.

You know, the slow Icelandic-style clap that gets everyone watching, everyone engaged and everyone joining in?

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Because once the final bell tolls this weekend, we head straight into a juicy month of April featuring the likes of Tyson Fury, Conor Benn, Deontay Wilder, Derek Chisora, Tenshin Nasukawa, Callum Smith and David Morrell, who are all excitedly hopping, skipping and jumping into view…

But we’re not ready to throw our gaze down that runway just yet.

If boxing’s pound-for-pound list was drawn up on excitement, then we might well have two of the top 10 fighters on that list fighting this weekend in the shape of Moses Itauma and Sebastian Fundora.

Let’s take a look at their fights this weekend alongside the best of the rest:

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1. Can Thurman roll back the clock “One More Time” against Fundora?

Sebastian Fundora has made a pretty good career of making solid boxers look stupid.

By all accounts “The Towering Inferno” fights like a man half his size, adopting the pocket-shotting ferocity of a pint-sized featherweight instead of a 6-foot-6 super welterweight.

The WBC champion finally meets 37-year-old former unified welterweight king Keith Thurman this weekend in Sin City, looking to edge “One Time” a step closer to retirement in what will be just Thurman’s third fight since 2019.

Fundora is prone to getting caught, and Thurman should still have enough tools to ask questions of the champion, but the trajectory of both careers alongside the BetMGM betting odds of +270 for a Thurman win suggest the challenger is in for a challenging night inside the MGM Grand.

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But Fundora is rarely in a dull fight. And if there are still a handful of miles left on Thurman’s odometer, then this one could well catch fire.

2. How long will Itauma spend in the ring against Franklin?

Moses Itauma has spent just seven minutes and 42 seconds in the ring across his last three fights, emphasizing why there is so much hype surrounding the career of the 21-year-old heavyweight.

This Saturday the unbeaten southpaw pits himself against Jermaine Franklin Jr. in Manchester, England, on the next rung of the heavyweight ladder.

Thirteen wins and 11 stoppages have seen the youngster receive bucket loads of hype over the three years he has been a professional, and the longer he continues passing tests with flying colors, the sooner questions of champions as future opponents — including Oleksandr Usyk — will be posed.

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Jermaine Franklin has only been bested by Englishmen Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte, and the traveling American is probably due an unfortunate hat trick this weekend inside the Co-op Live Arena.

Franklin has also never been stopped in 26 outings. Over to you, Moses.

3. Acosta handed veteran task in Rios

After back-to-back losses to Ramon Cardenas and Sulaiman Segawa, Mexico’s Bryan Acosta has been handed a chance to get back on the horse in a dangerous fight against two-time world title challenger Ronny Rios.

In what is being labelled a “throwback, now-or-never fight” by ProBox TV’s Garry Jonas, Acosta and Rios will meet over 10 bantamweight rounds at the Thunder Studios in Long Beach, California on Saturday night.

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At age 36 — and 244 rounds into a bruising career — Rios is a veteran down throughout the lower weights and has suffered some damaging defeats to the hard-hitting Nick Ball and Murodjon Akhmadaliev in two of his past three outings.

But with Acosta’s confidence shot after going 0-2 in 2025, Rios will be planning to old-man the 27-year-old in his most important fight to date.

4. Hutchinson and Taylor give us our 50/50 fix

If you want a 50/50 scrap this weekend, then you don’t need to look any further than Willy Hutchinson vs. Ezra Taylor for the vacant WBO Global light heavyweight title.

WBO trinket aside, this Scotland vs. England derby has all the makings of a show-stealer in Manchester as Taylor attempts to keep hold of his unbeaten record against the slight favorite Hutchinson.

Dropping defeats to Lennox Clarke and Joshua Buatsi over the past five years hasn’t completely derailed the “Hutch Train,” with 27-year-old Hutchinson hoping to use Taylor’s record and profile to launch himself back into the domestic conversation at light heavyweight.

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Both Taylor and Hutchinson have been engaged in a vocal back-and-forth since they first clashed ringside last year, adding a tasty bit of needle to this grudge match that could swing either way.

5. Tellez needs to look good against Mendoza

After upsetting Sebastian Fundora three years ago, the brakes have been applied to the career of Albuquerque’s Brian Mendoza.

The 32-year-old failed to use the momentum of that career-best win, falling on the wrong side of decisions to Tim Tszyu and Serhii Bohachunk in his two subsequent fights.

Mendoza was able to get back into the winners column last July with a fourth-round TKO win over the 10-loss Jesus Antonio Rojas, and now has the chance to rubber-stamp his return against Cuba’s Yoenis Tellez.

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Tellez is 11-1 (8 KOs) with his solitary loss coming to Abass Baraou last August, dropping his WBA interim title at super welterweight in the process, underlined by a 12th-round knockdown by the German.

But there is still plenty more expected from the career of Tellez, and the powers-that-be at PBC will be banking on Mendoza not registering one of his renowned upset victories.