THREE-TIME British champion Denzel Bentley has become the latest name to reveal a time when a Moses Itauma spar captured the attention of a gym. Bentley admitted the session convinced him that the 20-year-old heavyweight sensation is ‘the truth’.
Since turning professional in 2023, after an unbeaten amateur career, the hard-hitting youngster has proved that the hype is real, scoring a number of early knockout wins and thrusting himself into the world title mix.
On Saturday night, Itauma, 12-0 (10 KOs), ventured to Scotland for a first outing of 2025 and once again delivered, needing just two rounds to dispose of American opponent Mike Balogun. Itauma was installed as the WBO #1 contender in the following days.
On the Boxing News Review Show, middleweight world title challenger Denzel Bentley, 21-3-1 (17 KOs), heaped praise onto the Slovakia-born southpaw, who he believes would give any heavyweight on the planet a ‘run for their money’.
“I think that he is the truth, I think that he is the one to go and do it [win the heavyweight title], as long as he stays disciplined and does what he does – which I think he will do.
“He is only 20 and what he is doing now is ridiculous if I’m being honest. He is so smart, he’s got good punch selection but it’s his ring generalship and IQ [that I like], he knows where he is and he knows what he wants to do.
“His movement is amazing but the big advantage that he has got over all of these heavyweights is his speed; his movement, physically and his hand speed is going to throw off all of these heavyweights.
“If you were to put him in with any of the top heavyweights right now, he would give them a run for their money.”
Bentley then went on to explain why he is so convinced of Itauma’s potential, recalling (but remaining coy) about the full details of a time he watched him spar at Peacock Gym as an 18-year-old.
“He came to the gym for sparring, him and his brother [Karol], and I was really impressed with what I saw that day.
“He came in the gym and I was like ‘I don’t know how good this guy is, but we will see when he spars today’ and I just said ‘wow, you know what, he is the truth’. So, forget what he has done in the ring, since what I saw in the gym that day in the gym I have said that he is the truth.
“He was proper level-headed, he was cool. With some people, their heads are too big but he was just talking as if he didn’t do what he had just done and I was like ‘fair enough, I like this guy’, he is who he says he is – or what everyone else says he is!”
After being relatively untested thus far in his professional career, more recognisable names are now being mentioned for Itauma’s next contest. Francis Warren suggested that Otto Wallin or Jermaine Franklin could be targeted to provide the much-needed rounds for Britain’s blue-chip heavyweight prospect.
