In a fast-moving world, where it’s all about instant gratification, it should come as no surprise that Moses Itauma, at just 20 years of age, is already being talked about as Oleksandr Usyk’s next challenger. After all, the thought of waiting for something, showing patience, and perhaps learning more about a subject are foreign concepts these days, in boxing as in life.
In fact, if a fight could be ordered via an app and delivered to your doorstep within half an hour by a person riding a bike, this one, Usyk vs. Itauma, would be the one many people would click to order. Forget that it seems a tad expensive and undercooked, that’s for other people to worry about. All that matters is that it is on the menu and that it is, as of August 20, 2025, the most exciting heavyweight fight that can be made. All that matters is that people are talking about it – online, not outside – and that for as long as they are it carries some sort of relevance in the endless scroll of today’s world.
Is that, in the end, reason enough for a fight like Usyk vs. Itauma to be discussed and take place? Or is it high time someone in the sport demonstrates a bit of patience and intelligence and looks at the bigger picture – the health of the sport, the health of an individual fighter – rather than what generates content and clicks?
Five reasons why Usyk vs. Itauma SHOULD happen next
1) Because Turki Alalshikh wants it
Although the people around Itauma will be desperate to protect him and ensure he arrives at the top of the mountain only once he is ready, it is hard to avoid the obvious when it comes to both Itauma’s progress and the way boxing currently operates. According to the latest boxing news, with the joystick in the hands of just one man, Turki Alalshikh, and with so much of today’s work outsourced to the Middle East, it is entirely conceivable that Alalshikh’s desire to treat boxing like a computer game will see Itauma end up giving the Saudi Arabian financier exactly what he wants and when he wants it. Already Alalshikh has put in his request and made his wish clear. He wants it next, he said, and no amount of telling him, “Listen, Turki, why don’t you wait for your birthday, or see what Santa brings you for Christmas,” will change the fact that the boy with the wish list wants it next.
2) Itauma is the most exciting name in the heavyweight division
Even if his best win to date is a stoppage of a 37-year-old Dillian Whyte, there can be no denying what we already knew before that fight: Moses Itauma is the best heavyweight prospect in the world. Not only that, some would take this sentiment a step further and suggest that he is the best prospect in world boxing, period. With that it would be hard to argue. Certainly, in the sense of him being a heavyweight and therefore inherently marketable, it can be posited that Itauma has more upside than any other prospect in the world right now. He is also beating opponents the way a top prospect should be beating them (quickly, decisively), which in turn adds to the enthusiasm powering the hype train. Each test he has, he aces quicker than anybody expects, and he seems to possess an urgency and impatience which only feeds the idea that he must strike while the iron is hot and capitalise on his momentum.
3) Itauma is a southpaw
It may have zero bearing on the outcome of the fight, but seeing Usyk line up against a fellow southpaw will be a novel enough sight for it to at least carry some intrigue. So far as a heavyweight he has faced only orthodox fighters, you see, and despite each of them being bigger than him not one of them has managed to come close to solving the Usyk riddle. In fact, one would have to go back as far as 2016 to find the last southpaw Usyk boxed. That year he boxed two of them – Krzysztof Glowacki and Thabiso Mchunu – and had little difficulty overcoming the left-handed threat in front of him.
4) Itauma has plenty of time to recover from a setback
While it should never be the reason a fighter becomes reckless or takes an unnecessary risk, the fact that Itauma doesn’t turn 21 until December gives him a free roll of the dice. Get it right and he hits the jackpot, of course, but even if he should err and get his timing all wrong, there is no real harm done. Provided the defeat is not too damaging, and provided he doesn’t find himself woefully out of his depth, a loss against Usyk could be seen as a learning experience for Itauma and one from which he may very well grow and improve. That is to say, even the worst-case scenario could in the end be the making of Itauma rather than the breaking of him.
5) Usyk hasn’t beaten Itauma yet
After beating Daniel Dubois for a second time last month, there was a sudden sense of deflation when the DAZN interviewer neglected to ask Usyk about what he had just done and instead decided to ask him about what was next. This feeling of deflation was then only exacerbated when the interviewer began reeling off the names of potential opponents for Usyk. Among them were all the usual suspects, Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua, and Derek Chisora, as well as just one fresh face: Joseph Parker. Not one of these opponents seemed to stimulate Usyk, especially in that moment, and nor did they whet the collective appetite of all the fans watching, each of them aware of Usyk’s age (38) and the fact his time left in the sport is short. At least Itauma, then, for all his inexperience, would represent something new and daring and exciting. At least Itauma would give Usyk, and us, a bit of mystery before the great Ukrainian finally calls it a day.
Five reasons why Usyk vs. Itauma SHOULD NOT happen next
1) Itauma has only had 13 pro fights
As good as he has looked beating the likes of Dillian Whyte, Mike Balogun, Demsey McKean and Mariusz Wach, nothing can distract from Itauma having boxed just 13 times as a pro and in that time having beaten very few names of note. That’s no fault of his or the people guiding him, of course, but it is instead the reality of the situation. To date, he has been matched well, and has been kept busy, yet there are only so many things Itauma can have experienced and learned in such a short amount of time.
2) Itauma is the future of the division, not the present
For a while now the heavyweight division has seemed in a period of transition, with many of the top heavyweights from a few years ago now starting to fade, consider retirement, or find themselves used as “gatekeepers” for the next batch coming through. Of that batch coming through it is only Itauma who really captures the imagination and it is on his shoulders much of the future hope of the division rests. It would be rather foolish, then, to now accelerate Itauma’s progress and perhaps remove that hope just to stave off the boredom of Oleksandr Usyk, the one thirtysomething heavyweight who doesn’t appear as though he is over the hill and far away.
3) Beating Itauma at this stage does little for Usyk’s legacy
Without the aid of a crystal ball, it is impossible for one to determine what Moses Itauma will go on to achieve in the sport. He may, if his potential is fulfilled, one day become a world heavyweight champion and be everything everybody says he is on track to being. Yet, for now, at 20, Itauma is no more than a prospect with not a single win against a former world champion. He is, in other words, all potential and brings to the table nothing other than that. For us, that might be enough to stir the imagination, get us excited, and let us wonder what he could become. But, for Oleksandr Usyk, whose time is precious and whose record is littered with the names of world champions, the idea of fighting a man whose best win was last weekend against Dillian Whyte is hardly the most compelling prospect.
4) It didn’t work for Daniel Dubois
Itauma and the team behind him don’t have to look far for evidence of what happens when a young British heavyweight meets Oleksandr Usyk somewhat prematurely. All they have to do, in fact, is consider Daniel Dubois’ sudden rise in 2023 and remember how a spurious WBA “regular” title led him to the feet and hands of Oleksandr Usyk, the proper WBA champion, much earlier than anybody would have anticipated or advised. “Daring to be great” is what they usually call it, but all that does is explain/excuse a fighter being rushed towards a fight they have very little hope of actually winning. In Dubois’ case, this meant challenging Usyk in Poland and landing only one meaningful blow throughout nine rounds; one blow that just so happened to be ruled low and then played its part in the two heavyweights reuniting two years later. Second time around it was even more one-sided. Second time around Dubois didn’t even land a decent low blow. Now many are left wondering whether he will be the same fighter.
5) Defeat removes all of Itauma’s mystique and fear factor
Though it is true that Itauma is young enough and talented enough to rebound from any defeat he suffers at this stage of his career, that still doesn’t mean defeat should be taken lightly. At heavyweight, in particular, so much is made of a fighter’s unbeaten record and the air of invincibility they enjoy as a result of climbing the rankings with their zero intact. Itauma, in this respect, is no different than any other heavyweight prospect. At 13-0, he has a certain mystique about him and that alone can increase both his marketability and the all-round excitement of watching him fight. Lose to Usyk, however, and that mystique and air of invincibility goes even quicker than it was created.
