THE cat – or rather, boxing’s worst-kept secret – is now out of the bag, as rising star Moses Itauma will in fact collide with Dillian Whyte on August 16.
Their summer sizzler was reported on by Ring Magazine journalist Mike Coppinger last week, only for his employer to confirm what was already widely known just yesterday.
Indeed, the two heavyweights will headline a Ring Magazine card in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, presenting Itauma, 12-0 (10 KOs), with an opportunity to claim his most notable scalp.
The 20-year-old has enjoyed a ruthless surge up to this point, dispatching the majority of his more limited opponents in destructive fashion.
Whyte, 31-3 (21 KOs), meanwhile, produced a less-than-spectacular performance against Ebenezer Tetteh last December, with his seventh-round stoppage victory raising many doubts regarding his credentials as a world-level contender.
In any case, though, it was also announced yesterday that Nick Ball will put his WBA world featherweight title on the line against Sam Goodman.
Their co-main event matchup should make for an intriguing spectacle, with unbeaten contender Goodman, who was supposed to face Naoya Inoue earlier this year, moving up from 122lbs.
Elsewhere on the card, Anthony Cacece, who comes off an emphatic ninth-round stoppage victory over Leigh Wood, looks to extend his super-featherweight Indian summer against former world champion Raymond Ford.
Along with that, another heavyweight feature – this one, a far more left-field package – will see British champion David Adeleye take on world-ranked contender Filip Hrgovic.
Kicking off the show, however, will be Hayato Tsutsumi, a highly-touted super-featherweight prospect who takes a notable step-up against former amateur standout Qais Ashfaq.
