If you go by the reaction to Moses Itauma’s impressive fifth-round stoppage of Jermaine Franklin on Saturday, it would be perfectly reasonable to think the result and performance came as a surprise.
In fact, such is the level of hype and hysteria around Itauma at present, one only hopes that we can all, in time, find some sort of perspective and see Saturday’s win for what it was. After all, each of us knew before Saturday night that Itauma was good. We had a sense, too, that he would beat Franklin, for that was the point of the exercise, and that he would continue his march towards a shot at a world heavyweight title.
What we perhaps didn’t expect was the ease with which he handled both the occasion and the opponent. Unflappable, scarily so, Itauma didn’t just seem at home in front of 15,000 fans in Manchester, he appeared to grow before them and develop a greater hunger to put on a show.
This, for most of us, came as a revelation. However, to some, like Lawrence Okolie, a fellow British heavyweight who knows Itauma quite well, Saturday’s thrashing of Franklin in front of 15,000 fans was exactly what he has come to expect from the gifted 21-year-old.
Okolie, of course, once shared a ring with Itauma when Itauma was just 15 years of age. Back then, they were only sparring, but even with the pretence of practice Okolie knew Itauma was a teenager not to be taken lightly.
“I thought he was fantastic, to be fair,” Okolie said of Saturday’s win. “It’s so interesting to me because we are at the same weight at the same time, but he’s someone I always thought would be amazing from young. When I first saw him, I thought, Wow, I haven’t had someone give me this type of work in years. The crazy thing is, at the time he was only 15 years old. I was thinking, If he can do this now, what’s he going to be like in the future? Well, we’re starting to find out now, aren’t we? I thought he was great on Saturday. He didn’t really put a foot wrong.”
Typically, whenever a boxer recalls a particular sparring session or sparring partner who made an impression, much of the insight can be found in the tone of voice rather than what they say. In the case of Okolie with Itauma, even if the experience was indeed memorable, that does not mean Okolie has the words to explain why. To him, Itauma, at 15, was memorable purely because he was so unusual. He wasn’t just excellent, he was ineffable.
“It's hard to say,” said Okolie when I asked him to pinpoint what made Itauma so special. “He was very powerful for a young man and very smart in the ring. He was also hard to hit. I remember thinking, Oh, this is something different.
“Also, if I’m not allowed to be myself fully, I know that I’m in there with someone serious. Nine times out of ten when I’m in the ring – whether I’m fat, slim, cruiserweight or heavyweight – I feel like I can kind of control what is happening in the ring. That’s just the feeling I get, even on a shit day. But with him I was like, Rah, if I’m not 100 per cent, this is going to go badly. That’s when I knew, hold on, he’s really good. The only other time I have felt that was when I sparred Dan Dubois. With Itauma, I was just thinking, Okay, this is weird. Why is a 15-year-old making me feel like this?”
No longer a teenager, Itauma is now a professional heavyweight with a 14-0 (12 KOs) record and numerous world rankings. Given the pace at which he is currently moving, he isn’t far off landing an eliminator of some description and could even end up fighting for a version of the world heavyweight title within 12 months. Certainly, when it comes to ability and poise, Itauma looks to be almost ready.
“Even from young he had it,” said Okolie, meaning composure. “He had that composure you saw on Saturday night in front of all those fans. He then had speed, power, variety. It’s a lot to deal with, let’s be honest. I think it will take a serious fighter to beat him. In fact, he’s the type of fighter you’ve got to get early if you’re going to have any chance at all. Because you don’t want him to get too much experience. If he can keep beating guys like Franklin the way he did on Saturday and climbing up the levels, before long you have someone who is a bit too seasoned. If you’re going to go there, now’s the time to go and get it done.”
While Moses Itauma becomes a problem for others to deal with, Okolie, a former WBO cruiserweight champion, now focuses on his next fight, on April 25 in France, against Tony Yoka.
