Moses Itauma will return to the ring on the Josh Taylor vs Ekow Essuman card after his December destruction of Demsey McKean.
Moses Itauma‘s latest outing saw the Brit engage in a demolition job on Australian Demsey McKean. McKean almost went the distance with Filip Hrgovic, but was stopped in the final round.
Itauma never let McKean see the second round.
Billed as the next Mike Tyson, Itauma was touted to be the man to break ‘Iron Mike’s record of becoming the youngest heavyweight world champion, though it seems this won’t be possible now, as he his next fight date is the end of May, and it is unlikely he’ll be facing anyone with a belt.
“I’ve had some bad performances”… Moses Itauma sheds light on the worst nights of his career
In an interview with Adam Smith, Itauma is praised highly, with Smith stating: “Since you’ve turned pro you’ve put on some phenomenal performances, and you’ve put yourself right in the mix.”
Itauma, who is inspired by Ike Ibeabuchi, responded: “I’ve had some bad performances as well.”
When asked which performances he thought were bad, Itauma said: “The two fights that went the distance.”
In 2023 Itauma had two fights back-to-back which went to points, first against 9-12-1 Kostiantyn Dovbyshchenko, and then against 7-7 Kevin Espindola.
Itauma, who stopped Mariusz Wach in two rounds, insisted he hasn’t beaten himself up about these victories though, as he believes he’s learnt a lot since then:
“I don’t beat myself up about it because I just didn’t know. It’s only now that I’ve recently moved to Ben Davison that I actually really like kind of got the wider aspect of boxing. I’ve learnt a lot more. If I had this information when I was boxing these fighters I know I would’ve probably had a 100% KO streak.”
Itauma has nine knockouts to his 11 wins, and has never tasted defeat either as an amateur or a professional.
Moses Itauma to return in Scotland in May
Itauma’s ring return will come on the undercard of Josh Taylor, who Harlem Eubank wants next, vs Ekow Essuman.
Taylor’s career suffered back-to-back losses to Teofimo Lopez and Jack Catterall, and the Scotsman hopes to get back to winning ways against the 21-1 European champion. It will be Taylor’s first fight as a welterweight.
According to DAZN, Frank Warren had hoped to get Itauma out on the Joe Joyce vs Filip Hrgovic card, with the rumored opponent being Nelson Hysa, an Albanian knockout artist with 21 wins and 19 KOs.
He will instead now fight on the May 24th event, against 21-1 Mike Balogun. Balogun has 16 knockouts to his name and once faced Murat Gassiev. Itauma revealed Filip Hrgovic and Justis Huni were two fights he’d gladly take too.
There were rumors of a fight with Kubrat Pulev, though Itauma’s stablemate Fabio Wardley said that he was in negotiations with Pulev himself, and that the Bulgarian WBA Regular belt holder priced himself out of their fight.