Moses Itauma is making people wonder if he will break Mike Tyson’s record and become the youngest heavyweight champion of the world. Secondary contender Itauma (11-0, 9 KOs) recently turned 20 on Dec. 28, meaning he has four months to break Tyson’s record.
Itauma stopped 34-year-old Dempsey McKean (22-2, 14 KOs) in the second round on the undercard of Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk 2 in Riyadh. The event was shown on DAZN PPV.
Chasing Tyson
Tyson was 20 years and four months old when he knocked out WBC heavyweight champion Trevor Berbick in the second round on November 22, 1986. It was ‘Iron’ Mike’s 28th professional fight, and he was facing a better opponent than Itauma. That’s one big difference.
The only semi-notable opponents Itauma has faced are 45-year-old Mariuz Wach and Demsey McKean. Before the match against Itauma, Wach had lost eight of his previous 12 fights. McKean had been inactive for 16 months and was coming off a 12-hour knockout loss to Filip Hrgovic.
Itauma was matched VERY carefully, just like his brother, Karol Itauma, before he was eventually knocked out when matched against a decent opponent.
Promoter Frank Warren has said he wants Itauma to win a share of one of the heavyweight titles in 2025. Or he will go after the WBA ‘regular’ champion Kubrat Pulev or temporary belt. Joseph Parker holds the interim WBO title. However, Warren is unlikely to bring Itauma with him this year due to his high probability of losing.
Even the 43-year-old Pulev could be too much for Itauma as the Bulgarian still has very impressive technical skills that cannot be prepared in one camp.
Brother’s shadow
Itauma is a good basic attacker, but has no experience against anything remotely resembling a level 1 fighter. If he goes toe-to-toe with Parker like a shark or Oleksandr Usyk, he will be outboxed and likely knocked out, just like his brother, Karol Itauma, was when he fought 2008 Olympian Ezequiel Maderna in 2023.
Before that fight, everyone was raving about Karol, but he was completely beside himself when he matched him with Maderno. Karol is no longer heard of today. The same could happen to Moses Itauma if he teams up with a good heavyweight.
“It’s a fair analogy,” said promoter Frank Warren BoxNation when an interviewer told him he hadn’t seen anyone like Moses Itauma since Mike Tyson started his career. “I imagined that he would win the fight [Demsey McKean]but I thought he was going to get a few rounds like he did in the previous fight [45-year-old Mariusz Wach].
“The power is unbelievable and how relaxed he is when he throws his punches. He has a great punch, he has a good boxing brain and he got the job done in a big way [knocking out McKean in round one]. Although the fights didn’t last that long, he looked the most composed of them all.
“He has a very good head on his shoulders and a great team around him. He can fight. There is no doubt about it. He could literally do whatever he wanted to do,” Warren said when asked what Moses Itauma can do in 2025.
Let’s put things into perspective. McKean had been out of the ring for 16 months and was coming off a knockout loss to Hrgovic. Prior to that, McKean had never beaten anyone of note during his 10-year career. All his victories came against opponents who were not world class.
“No, I don’t want to throw it, especially with a young fighter, throwing them in the deep end. “I believe whoever he’s fighting, whoever it is and whatever level they’re at, he’s giving them a big problem,” Warren said.
“I want to see him win the version [heavyweight] title, and I want to see a big domestic conflict down the line, maybe between Daniel [Dubois] both him and the one standing. Yeah, all those guys. All these fights are there to be fought. It’s so exciting.
“Combinations of different fights that can be done. It’s bloody brilliant,” Warren said of the possible fights that could be involved in Itauma.
Will Moses Itauma be world champion by the end of 2025? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/oN0zasEkIj
— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) January 3, 2025
