The boxing world is swooning over Moses Itauma.
At 21, the British heavyweight is already being heralded as the future global king of the sport’s glamour division.
Itauma is on a nine-fight knockout streak with every victory ending within the first two rounds. Last summer, he destroyed a fading Dillian Whyte in just 61 seconds in Saudi Arabia.
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The world appears to be at his feet, but the thrill of a lightning-fast clinical finish isn’t enough for Chatham fighter. He wants more.
“It just went so fast,” recalls Itauma, who has 11 knockouts in 13 successful contests. “When I got to the changing room, I was a little bit underwhelmed.
“In training camp for 14 weeks, for the fight to go two minutes, it’s a bit underwhelming, because it’s like, did I have to train all that?”
Itauma faces American Jermaine Franklin at Manchester’s Co-op Live Arena on Saturday. This time, he is craving rounds.
Speaking to BBC Sport, the heavyweight discusses his three-year professional career, the sacrifices of his family, and why Franklin represents his toughest test yet.
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Family first – Team GB snub & bitter-sweet debut
Itauma’s professional journey has been brief but brutal. He has boxed just 26 rounds in his pro career – and many of those were cut short.
He demolished Marcel Bode in just 23 seconds on his debut in January 2023 at Wembley Arena. But just like the Whyte fight, the early ending brought little joy.
“I didn’t care,” he reflects. “My brother suffered his first loss, literally a couple of minutes before. To be honest, I didn’t even want to fight that day.”
Family is the core of the Itauma story. His brother, light-heavyweight Karol Itauma, sits behind the cameras during fight week duties. The bond was forged through a 1,050-mile journey from Kezmarok, beneath Slovakia’s Tatra Mountain, to Chatham in Kent.
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Born to a Slovak mother and Nigerian father, their early years were defined by racism and a search for a place to belong.
“Me and my brothers, we don’t look very Slovak, and that kind of limited opportunities that we can have in that country,” says Itauma.
“My mum was like, they’re probably going to have more opportunities and a better upbringing if they move to a country where people of mixed-race backgrounds are more common.”
Those sacrifices influenced every decision that followed. Itauma started boxing at nine, but it wasn’t until 14 that he decided to take it seriously.
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“My mum sacrificed a lot coming over to the UK,” he says. “I need to kind of make it. So, yeah, it’s difficult, but I’m happy that my mum made the decisions and obviously I’m following through.”
That “family first” mentality is why he snubbed the Olympic route with Team GB to sign with Frank Warren’s Queensberry Promotions.
“The short and sweet of it was that my family needed the money,” he adds.
Can Ituama do better than AJ against ‘tough cookie’ Franklin?
It hasn’t been entirely plain sailing. In his third and fourth fights, Itauma was taken the six-round distance by journeymen Kostiantyn Dovbyshchenko and Kevin Nicolas Espindola.
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It was a wake-up call. Itauma initially “wanted to be world champion by 20”, but these gritty encounters tempered that ambition.
He says: “I kind of hit a barrier where I don’t think I was learning anymore. So would I say I learned from those fights? Yes, but kind of to not wait for something to break to fix it.”
Taking “accountability” for his career, he linked up with trainer Ben Davison. Since then, Itauma has gone from strength to strength.
The ensuing knockout streak has catapulted him into – perhaps prematurely – conversations about world titles. While wins over Demsey McKean and Whyte were impressive, the general consensus is Itauma still needs to prove he can swim in deep waters.
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He has never lost as an amateur nor a professional and his chin has rarely – if ever – been tested.
Franklin is the man chosen to provide the answers. The 32-year-old Michigan native is a “tough cookie”, according to Itauma, never been stopped, losing only to Dillian Whyte and Anthony Joshua on points.
“We can agree that Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte are big punchers, right?” asks Itauma.
“Everybody’s saying that I haven’t seen the distance because I’m such a big puncher, right? So Jermaine Franklin’s about to answer some questions.”
While the public talks of world titles, Itauma knows there are levels to the heavyweight game and he is eager to scale them.
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The jump from contender to world-title level can be huge and Itauma is eager to find someone to bridge that gap, rather than jump right into a bout with a champion.
Itauma already has his eyes fixed on that opponent – Croatia’s Filip Hrgovic, whose last two bouts have been victories against Britons Joe Joyce and David Adeleye after losing to Daniel Dubois for the interim IBF heavyweight title two years ago.
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