A new British heavyweight (200+ lbs) star has risen.
20-year old Moses Itauma (13-0, 11 KO’s) exemplified the continuing development of talented British heavyweights as he went on to demolish veteran Dillian Whyte (31-4, 21 KO’s) during their August 16th contest, held at in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The two heavyweights headlined the card in a 10-round title bout, with Itauma ending up successfully defending his WBO Inter-Continental title.
The pre-match predictions seemed to give Whyte a more favorable chance in the last couple of weeks as he came in at a light 244½ pounds ― the lowest he’s been since defeating Alexander Povetkin at 247¼ pounds during their rematch in 2021.
However, according to Whyte himself, most of his training had involved him getting in shape rather than honing his skills; which might have been a contributing factor to the shocking loss he would suffer on fight night, with his chin resistance potentially having decreased as a factor.
The first round between the two Brits certainly showed Whyte’s skills sorely lacking in refinement as he failed to land a jab against Itauma who parried and avoided the veteran’s shot with ease with simple backsteps. From the southpaw stance, Itauma demonstrated his own talent, hitting Whyte cleanly with jabs during the majority of exchanges between the two which slowly opened Whyte up.
After around the 1st minute mark of the match, managed to slip in a left hand or two that landed but did not immediately damage Whyte. Starting off fast, Moses Itauma diversified his punches, throwing more body shots and landing more left or right hands that tilted the match firmly in his favor.
At the half portion of the fight, Itauma began landing more combinations which clearly hurt Whyte and sent him struggling in the ropes where the younger heavyweight unleashed short and quick hooks that Whyte was barely able to withstand. Eventually, Whyte fell after a left-right hook combination sent him sprawling forward on the ground to suffer a knockdown.
Dillian Whyte managed to get up in attempt to beat the referee’s count of 10 but struggled in the moment, almost falling down again which urged the referee to wave the fight off. The fight would be ruled a technical knockout (TKO) win for Moses Itauma in the 1st round, allowing him to retain his WBO Inter-Continental title as he grabbed a shocking victory over Whyte who had never been stopped before the 5th round throughout his past three losses.
Itauma’s win was solid and empathetic, but a consensus on his exact level of ability has not been reached given Whyte’s advanced age and ineffective training camp where conditioning had been the primary focus rather than the overall sharpening of both his offensive and defensive skills.
Neverthless, Moses Itauma seems very much eager to prove himself against the top of the division, including against undisputed champion Oleksandr Usyk as he indicated in his post-match interview.
Itauma currently occupies the #1 position on the WBO heavyweight ranking charts, and further seems to clearly be favored to become Usyk’s next opponent after Turki Alalshikh, who organized the August 16th card, stated to have no interest in the recently-ordered fight between WBO interim champion Joseph Parker and Usyk.
Undercard fights:
Featured in the co-main event, British WBA featherweight (126 lbs) champion Nick Ball (23-0-1, 13 KO’s) and Australian challenger Sam Goodman (20-1, 8 KO’s) fought in arguably the most competitive contest on the August 16th card during their 12-round title fight.
The two were closely-matched, with Ball nicking the fight with several rounds to win the match by unanimous decision (UD) through the judges’ scores of 115-113, 118-110, and 117-111. Notably, the latter two scorecards reflected an entirely different match than in reality, with Ball having clearly struggled with the talented Goodman throughout the bout, but grabbing a victory through sheer grit and determination.
Ball retained his WBA title for the third time of his career as a result of his win.
At super featherweight (130 lbs) American former WBA featherweight champion Raymond Ford (18-1-1, 8 KO’s) ― and a former opponent of Ball ― faced countryman Abraham Nova (24-4-1, 17 KO’s) in a 10-round contest that saw Ford struggle only slightly to carve out a UD win.
Despite the victory, Ford’s performance showed several susceptibilities when it came to defense; putting his aspirations to become a world champion again at risk against any of the 130-pound champions in the division.
Croatian contender Filip Hrgovic (19-1, 14 KO’s) and British contender David Adeleye (14-2, 13 KO’s) competed in a 10-round match to move ahead into a genuine contending position. It would be the former to grab a rather easy victory by unanimous decision as Hrgovic’ experience and improved conditioning prevented Adeleye from overcoming his pre-match odds as an underdog.
Now seemingly renewed following his loss to Daniel Dubois last year, Hrgovic might be matched against Moses Itauma himself to potentially face his fourth British fighter in a row.
