Moses Itauma vs. Mike Balogun set for May 24.

He has had 11 fights in 2 and a half years.

Mike Tyson was on his 31st fight at the same point where Itauma is on his 11th!!

If you want to compare yourself to him atleast make an attempt. He has not even fought half as much as Mike Tyson did back then.

And this latest opponent is a body for hire.

 

Disappointing opponent after an impressive first round KO and then a long break, I’m all for him building but he’ll have had better sparring than this.

 

Itauma did take a big step up in his last fight, so it´s not fair to say that he is all talk. Altho there is a lot of talking, can´t deny that.
The problem with getting the ring with guys like Joyce, Whyte and so on is that those are expensive fights to make. Prospects often get criticized for taking on weak opposition, but good fights cost money.
And looking at the current landscape, I think they just want to keep Itauma busy for the moment, as everyone is tied up. Not that it´s the best strategy, but it´s effective and it´s cheap.

 

The lads only had 11 fights in 2 1/2 years. He is not active enough.

No one has an issue with him rolling over bodies like Balogun at this stage of his career, but at least do it often.

Its also a good marketing strategy. Once he builds a record of 25-0 and or 30-0 that is an impressive marketing tool to justify facing the big names and getting a title shot.

 

He made his pro debut in January of 2023 and fought 7 times that year. Then in 2024 he fought 4 times, so I would not criticize his activity levels all that much. He is as active as any current top 10 guy was when they first started out.

Yes. While I do think he is pretty active, it´s been a little too slow since the Wach fight. I don´t get why he took 5 months off again, after scoring and easy KO over McKean.

He is already ranked nr 2 by the WBO, I don´t think they will be waiting another 10+ fights to take a serious step up in class.

 

Bad fight a step down in regards to level of opposition and a complete waste of time.

It makes you really appreciate what Tyson did in his early days he fought 28 times in under 2 years going 10 rounds 3 times and won a world title.

The fact Itauma has been inactive for months and this is the best opponent they could find is really disappointing and does nothing for his development nor does it tell us anything new about him.

 

The thing is though compare him with Tyson when he was a prospect.

Tyson was knocking out opponent after opponent but would also have decent tests in between.

Tyson had 28 fights in under 2 years scoring 25 stoppages and going 10 rounds 3 times inbetween. He was constantly active fighting against sub par to decent/solid opposition and his development come along nicely.

Why in the world Itauma would take months off after scoring a routine 1st round knockout is baffling he should of been right back in there instantly.

This fight is a complete waste of time and as I said in the previous post does nothing for his development especially wasting like 6 months of his career on the sidelines just to fight a journeyman.

 

Fully agreed. They tried to sell him as the next Mike Tyson, and they probably could have even gotten him that early title shot, given how easily they got him ranked #2. But I think they saw the landscape and said **** that .
The top 5 is nothing but killers, and no way were they sacrificing a 10 fight novice to them.

I too was annoyed with all of the Tyson talk, because it was clear that they were not going to even attempt it.