The praise could hardly have been any higher: ‘This is an even more exciting and more dangerous young heavyweight than Mike Tyson’.
Yes, Frank Warren has his promoter’s interest in Moses Itauma. No, he hasn’t lost all leave of his senses.
The 20,000 fans in the sold-out Co-op Live arena in Manchester were in a similar state of delirium on Saturday night.
The coolest customer in the building was the 21-year-old sledgehammer puncher from Chatham and even he expects to be a world heavyweight champion by the end of the year.
When asked to name who he would like to fight next after obliterating American hope Jermaine Franklin, Moses commanded: ‘Everyone.’
That includes the winner between two other English heavy hitters, Fabio Wardley and Daniel Dubois, in their fight for the WBO belt back here in Manchester on May 9. And then, dare we say it, Oleksandr The Great Usyk for the undisputed world championship.
Great are the expectations but they are spoken without ego. Itauma was born in Slovakia but his upbringing from the age of four on the Kentish shores has gifted unto British boxing a thoroughly English gentleman.
Before being swept along on the tide of public euphoria he paused to reprimand Franklin’s corner men for complaining to referee Steve Gray that the fifth-round stoppage was premature. ‘You should have called it off yourselves,’ he told them. ‘You should have taken care of your fighter.’
At that point the beefy Franklin was sprawled flat on his face from the second of the only two knock-downs he has suffered in his career.
Itauma explained: ‘It’s just that I know the damage I’m capable of inflicting.’ Hence he was grateful to the man from Michigan for absorbing a shedload of punishment for longer the first- or second-round KOs which have been his stock in trade for most of his all-win career so far.
That enabled Moses to answer a couple more relevant questions: ‘I proved that I can go a few rounds. I proved that I can take a big punch.’
Two, actually. Franklin lifted the non-stop bombardment twice to land meaty shots flush on the chin but to his dismay Itauma barely flinched.
If there are any doubters left Moses might refer them to the testament of Jermaine’s two previous visits to England, on which he took Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte the full distance and in the second instance was unlucky not to be given the decision.
The majority of the public are only too delighted to celebrate a star being born.
Warren whetted their appetite all the more by saying: ‘If Usyk didn’t have a huge-money spectacle coming up against a kick-boxing legend in the showbiz setting of the Egyptian pyramids I would be looking to make a fight with him for Moses right now. It beggars belief saying that when he’s just 21 and had only 14 pro fights.’
Ukraine’s war hero is without doubt the greatest boxer of his generation but even Usyk will know that his genius will need to be in full working order if and when they do fight.
As it is, Itauma is looking for someone else to volunteer in July for taking a beating from punches that are not only blockbusting but delivered with blistering hand speed and devastating precision.
The fifth round execution bore the hallmark of a deadly finisher. A lightning left uppercut followed by a wicked straight right as Franklin fell.
This Moses is destined to reach the promised land and with each fight thousands more boxing lovers are coming along for the ride.
