The hype about Moses Itauma is very real, and all eyes are now on who the 20-year-old heavyweight sensation will face in his next fight.
Itauma improved to 12-0 as a pro (with 10 wins coming inside the first two rounds) courtesy of a devastating obliteration of American Mike Balogun in Glasgow last Saturday night.
The astonishing performance had the experts shaking their heads in admiring disbelief once again as he showcased his full repertoire of offensive weapons inside four minutes. It was, quite simply, spellbinding stuff (just watch the video at the end of this article).
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If there was a downside on Saturday – and a tiny one – it was that once again Itauma’s opponent was not good enough to give him the rounds he craves to speed up his development towards the elite of the division.
Wallin a ‘great fight’ for Itauma
Now manager Francis Warren has the unenviable task of finding the right next opponent as he prepares to send Itauma out once again on that massive Oleksandr Usyk vs Daniel Dubois 2 bill at Wembley Stadium on Saturday July 19. Warren though does have one candidate he really likes in the shape of Sweden’s Otto Wallin (27-3).
Wallin of course is famous for giving Tyson Fury a scare back in 2019 as ‘The Gypsy King’ overcame a horrendous cut to secure a decision victory. He has since been stopped by Anthony Joshua and last time out dropped a decision to Dereck Chisora.
He told BoxNation: “I think Otto Wallin would be a great fight for him next. I think Otto’s proven himself to be a very durable, tough opponent who garners respect from the boxing community because of the work he’s done against Tyson [Fury] and Anthony [Joshua], and gave Dereck [Chisora] a great fight. And I think for Moses, who wants to get rounds in, that’s probably a great shout.”
Franklin another option
There is another man near the forefront of Warren’s mind – durable American Jermaine Franklin (23-2). He, like Wallin, has impressed against some top names – losing on points to both Dillian Whyte and then Joshua in 2022 and 2023.
“Jermaine Franklin is another one that I particularly like the look of. But then by the end of the year we’re gonna be looking to step it up considerably, I think. If we get number one with the WBO… he’s number 3 with the WBA. So we’re sitting pretty within, you know, within two of the organisations and I think it’s up to us and we wanna pull the trigger and put our hands up to move, move onto that next stage.”
The subject of Itauma’s development – how fast it happens and when he is ready to take on the real heavyweight elite with titles on the line – might be the hottest topic in boxing this week. It’s one which is not a simple equation, as Warren explained.
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“Fact of matter is it’s all about him being in a position to feel comfortable… and, everything has to be considered in terms of development – is it right for the training team? Is it right commercially? Is it right for the promoter? But most importantly, is it right for Moses? Does he wanna pull the trigger at 20? 21? 22?
“To go to that next level. It’s down to him. If he feels comfortable in what he wants to do. ‘Coz I know that all these governing bodies want him on board now. So if we made a call and said Right, we wanna fight someone in the top 10 and that, that would act as an eliminator. Pretty sure we would be able to do that.”
Current heavyweight champions
Pretty soon it’s hoped Itauma will be ready to fight for a world title, and the current heavyweight champions are Oleksandr Usyk and Daniel Dubois.
Usyk (23-0) is the WBC, WBA, WBO, Ring magazine and lineal champion (‘the man who beat the man’) while Dubois (22-2) is the IBF ruler.
The winner of their July 19 matchup at Wembley will crown only the sport’s second undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis all the way back in 1999.
