THERE are many reasons to get excited about the future of Moses Itauma.
The teenage sensation has moved to 10 wins from 10 fights, in just under two years, with eight not going the distance. Itauma’s maturity and the way he has gone about his business has left a huge impression on many and the British heavyweight looks like a potential world heavyweight champion in the making. The number 14 ranked IBF contender continues his assault on the division this Saturday night on the Usyk-Fury 2 undercard against Demsey McKean.
At 19 years old, however, Itauma still has some time on his side to break a record held by Mike Tyson. On November 22, 1986 Tyson wiped out Trevor Berbick in two rounds to become WBC heavyweight champion at 20 years and four months. Itauma will celebrate his own 20th birthday on December 28 and for him the thought of beating the 38 year old record is getting further from his mind.
“I’m not thinking about things I can’t control,” he told Boxing News.
“It’s a goal I set out to do before I turned professional and now that I’m in the pro game I realise all this politics, all this mandatory and all the XYZ stuff that I was unaware of. So, I’m not really too focused on it now because I know I can be the best boxer in the world and still not become a world champion.”
Itauma’s attention is on his next opponent who in 23 fights has lost just once. The defeat came against former IBF mandatory challenger Filip Hrgovic who stopped the 6ft 6ins McKean in the final round of their fight 14 months ago.
“I know a lot of stuff he does wrong,” Itauma said of McKean. “Even if he does correct it he won’t be able to correct it for the whole fight.”
Itauma laughed off McKean’s claims that he’s gained extra confidence from the fact a rematch clause has been inserted by Itauma’s handlers.
“I didn’t even know this,” Itauma said.
“It doesn’t matter because I’m not thinking about losing to him. If I do lose to Demsey McKean I’ll have bigger questions to ask myself than a rematch.”
