20-year-old heavyweight sensation Moses Itauma, the fighter seemingly everyone is talking about right now, will be making a pretty swift return to the ring. Itauma, who advanced to 12-0(10) with his second-round KO win over a game Mike Balogun on Saturday, is set to fight again on the undercard of the massive Oleksandr Usyk-Daniel Dubois rematch that will play out before a sold-out Wembley Stadium on July 19.
Itauma experienced an inactive spell of five months between his quick wins over Demsey McKean and Balogun, and the British star in the making doesn’t want a repeat of that again. Itauma says he wants rounds, he wants activity, and he wants experience. There is no word yet on who Itauma will fight on July 19, but it will be a “step up fight” according to co-promoter Francis Warren who spoke with The Ring.
Warren shuts down Bakole and Parker talk for Wembley
Frank Warren also spoke with The Ring, and he said it won’t be either Martin Bakole or Joseph Parker in the opposite corner from Itauma when he fights at Wembley.
“I don’t know why everybody keeps going on about Bakole,” Warren said yesterday. “He looked terrible in his last fight, and he got knocked spark out in the one before that. I look at his list of opponents, and he hasn’t really fought anyone, so I don’t know where that talk of him fighting Moses has come from. We are not in the Bakole business. We care about Moses Itauma. [Joe] Parker is the WBO interim champion right now, so that won’t happen on July 19. We couldn’t afford to do it on the undercard at Wembley. We could have rolled the dice and got Moses a world title shot, but his career is a marathon, not a sprint. We will look at his options for his next opponent in the next week or so.”
July 19 undercard heats up—Joyce vs. Yoka also in play?
It will prove interesting seeing who Itauma gets next. A testing fight is just what he needs as we know. The undercard for the July 19 show could prove to be quite a heavyweight affair, what with Itauma being back in action on the card and with an in-the-works fight between Joe Joyce and Tony Yoka a possibility for then.
Can Itauma fight for, and win, a world title next year?
