Dillian Whyte vs Moses Itauma

Dillian Whyte is like if Derek Chisora had no chin and no gas tank.

He's cooked; Itauma by early stoppage.

 

Another person with the straw man fallacy. Weak.

 

This is a good, balanced position.

As you say, there's undeniably hype there and he may go on to justify it... Or he might wind up as one more cautionary tale in the long history of people hyping prospects before they've taken a proper punch, or beaten anyone within a thousand miles of being a legit contender.

And these things aren't necessarily simple, either - memories are (conveniently) short around here, sometimes...
Dubois was extremely highly hyped before he fought Joyce, not without some reason as he clearly had things going for him as a prospect (which is all he really was at that point) - after that fight, he was trash and lots of the guys hyping him up dropped him like a stone and moved on to the next prospect... The rest is history, as it were, and he's continued improving to the point that he's proved himself a proper contender now - but that Joyce fight was just too much, too soon (as even a declined Whyte would be for Itauma just yet).

Itauma is rightly highly promising as a prospect - there's just an awful long road between highly rated prospects and being ready for title fights.

The problem here isn't that Itauma doesn't have potential, he clearly does - the problem is there are some proper windowlicking ******s who think he's already a contender... I suspect you were replying to one of them (if you were, they're on block).

 

Joyce was in his prime vs Dubois. Whyte is not in his prime anymore. There in also lies the danger. Is Whyte shot or does he have one more in him? It’s high risk high reward for Itauma.

 

Itauma destroys him within 3.

Whyte doesn't have the durability to ''old man'' his way through this.

 

This is true - then again, Joyce at his best was probably no more than a fringe contender...

He had a great chin and a stiff jab, but he was glacially slow and extremely limited defensively - against some fighters this made him a dangerous bananaskin, against others it would've made him a very easy night's work.

All said and done, prime for prime, Whyte was the better fighter... But as you say, that's not what we're comparing.

Clearly declined, definitely.
Shot? Possibly.

The other question is whether even a borderline shot Whyte remains dangerous for a prospect... And given Whyte could always punch hard, and Itauma's chin hasn't been tested by anything near that kind of power, it's risky as you say.

I don't even know if it's a high-risk high-reward case...
With casuals who don't currently know who he is, or how declined Whyte is, he'd get a fairly hefty reputation boost.
With the hype hippies on here, he'd get a massive boost - ironically, given that they'd consider Whyte shot right up until it suited them for him to prove something (and would give no credit to Whyte if he won).

I'd have to give him a lot of credit if he pulled it off - it'd be a very significant step up, and he'd very likely take some big hits and have to get through them to win, and that would tell us a lot.

Reality is, his management isn't deranged enough to throw him into that kind of fight just yet.

 

Let’s say the fight happens and Itauma does win. Then what’s next? Because he would have to fight an even more dangerous opponent.

Who do you think Itauma should realistically fight next at this moment?

 

He`s also easier to hit with no amateur background.

 

Wardley has had to show his chin and resilience because of his lack of skill and defense, even against lower level fighters.

 

He would certainly be able to make noise about deserving an even more dangerous opponent... It'd raise his general profile quite a lot.

It'd make it harder to not fight against a higher level of opponents than he has so far - at some point there'd be a clamour for him to fight a name who isn't old (as Wach was and Whyte would've been)... But he'd probably be able to take on a couple more faded guys from the previous generation first, perhaps Joyce or Chisora.

Or maybe it'd make more sense to match him up with someone tricky but limited, preferably overrated (Hrgovic, perhaps?).

As in, back in the now, not having fought/beaten Whyte as in the fantasy above?

Probably another solid journeyman or gatekeeper - one who bangs would tell us a lot, but his management might prefer one who's technically decent but not too heavy-handed...

Wallin would make for quite a decent step up, without posing a real KO threat and he'd learn a lot from that sort of fight...

But I suspect they'll take it steadier than that for now, maybe an old former-gatekeeper again (Hammer?) or someone who's not quite able to beat the legit gatekeepers... Yoka, perhaps?

 

Whyte is tough as old boots and very experienced, powerful and will come to fight. He still has a few more fights left in him.

 

If Itauma does beat Whyte this year well. Then I'll put my hands up here.

It would be an incredible victory and would propel Itauma into a contender. But, its just too too early for Itauma IMO.

 

He is but he is very very tough, powerful and will really really come to fight. We saw that against Frazer Clarke who won an Olympic Bronze medal himself.

 

@BubblesUK

David Adeleye has been ordered to fight Itauma. Adeleye is pretty ass but he is a solid step up for Itauma IMO and he is tough and will want to prove himself.

 

His chin is shot and he's slower than ever. I like Whyte, but he shouldn't be fighting guys like Itauma at this point of his career.

All that experience that Whyte has gained throughout the years has come at the cost of him being damaged goods.

If Fury can KO you with a single punch, a legit puncher will do bad damage.