Dillian Whyte and Moses Itauma, two British heavyweights at almost opposing phases of their careers, will be headlining a card on August 16. Held as a part of the 2025 Esports World Cup that will be held in Riyadh between July 8 and August 24, several other significant fights have already been confirmed for the undercard.
Rumors swimming earlier this week hinted at the makings of a bout between Dillian Whyte (31-3, 21 KO’s) and Moses Itauma (12-0, 10 KO’s) which has now been confirmed as the two will be headlining the upcoming August 16 card. The event will apparently be sponsored/organized by the same organizers of the 2025 Esports World Cup which will be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Despite having no known connections with Riyadh Season, the event appears to be based on both The Ring and Riyadh Season-based cards, both of which are headed by Turki Alalshikh―suggesting Alalshikh is closely involved in the making of this event given his position in boxing and connections to the Saudi Arabian entertainment industry as the chairman of the General Entertainment Authority (GEA).
Notably, Moses Itauma seems to have received top billing for the fight, signifying Queensberry Promotions’ clear intent to position Itauma as the future face of their franchise as he heads into a step-up fight against Whyte; inarguably the most difficult opponent of his career.
Their heavyweight (200+ lbs) bout is set for a total of 12 rounds, further indicating the significance of this match which could possibly spur at least one of the sanctioning bodies to introduce some vacant interim belt or another notable title for the bout.
The most glaring observations surrounding the competition is the large age gap and experience between the two fighters; with Moses Itauma being 20-years old―17 years younger than the 37-year old Dillian Whyte. Throughout his career, Whyte has challenged just once for a world title when he faced Tyson Fury in 2022 but his resume counts as one of the strongest of British heavyweights of the past decade, with Whyte having faced multiple notable opponents―not excluding Anthony Joshua (28-4, 25 KO’s).
In comparison, Itauma’s own resume pales in comparison to Whyte’s, with his only relevant win having ensued against Australian fighter Demsey McKean (22-2, 14 KO’s) whom he faced last year on a Riyadh Season card headlined by the rematch between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury. However, the young heavyweight is highly-touted to become one of Britain’s best heavyweight boxers in history, and carries significant talent that makes for what could be an evenly-matched bout.
As per usual with Riyadh Season cards, the undercard is not devoid of exciting, competitive fights that is sure to draw more attention to the August 16 card.
Most prominently, another heavyweight bout will ensue between Croatian contender Filip Hrgovic (18-1, 14 KO’s) and British contender David Adeleye (14-1, 13 KO’s); the former being well-known for his stint as the IBF interim heavyweight champion, while Adeleye counts as one of the more notable British heavyweights from Queensberry Promotions’ roster.
A bout between British WBA featherweight (126 lbs) champion Nick Ball (22-0-1, 13 KO’s) and Australian Sam Goodman (20-0, 8 KO’s) is also set to ensue and will be an interesting spectacle given Goodman had been propped up as a significant opponent for Naoya Inoue for their postponed and eventual cancelled bout. With Goodman now making the move up from super bantamweight (122 lbs), there will be interest in seeing whether he truly is the top fighter he was considered to be at 122 lbs.
Congruently, Nick Ball receives the opportunity to remain active and perhaps finally justify his promotion, Queensberry, to make the move to unify against any of the other three champions in the division.
At super featherweight (130 lbs), Raymond Ford (17-1-1, 8 KO’s) will be featured against British contender Anthony Cacace (24-1, 9 KO’s) who held the IBF 130-pound title last year. Ford, a former opponent of Nick Ball and the previous holder of the WBA 126-pound title that Ball earned in his win over Ford, will be looking to prove his credentials as a top contender at super featherweight―similar to Cacace who will also look to get back on top after being forced to vacate his IBF title.
