Moses Itauma vs Jermaine Franklin targeted

It’s a decent fight, as long as he sticks to the suggestion I made earlier - fight all the b-bracket guys, and build experience and hype. That’s the Tyson model - but only if he is very active. Otherwise, it’s kind of a waste of time at this point.

 

Not a high bar ....

 

In reality this is a good match up for him in his development. But a big LOL of him fighting Usyk, Hrgovic or Parker next it’s all just talk as he is now literally targeting a guy who Whyte has beaten.

 

Throwing him in with Hrgovic would be better imo. Great test

 

They're being cautious because the kid can't get any rounds and gets hit like once per fight. I'm going to laugh when they set this up, then he sparks Franklin in a round or two. I think his own people want someone to actually give him a rough night.

 

I like this one too. So does Hrgovic it seems, he's said he'd do it.

 

Do they?

Jared Anderson was put in against better competition from the start of his career than Moses has seen. In Jared's 13th fight he went up against the ultra-durable Jerry Forrest. A guy who had just drawn with Zhang and Hunter and gone the distance with Pulev. Moses got the corpse of Dillian Whyte who everyone knew had been shot to hell for years.

His team is saying they want to get him rounds, but I really think they're trying to continue building the hype train. I mean, they're not even trying to tamp down the Usyk talk.

The problem for this kid is that he really has been fed the worst jobbers possible. No one will even throw a punch at him, much less show him something and make him think. I know records, especially early, can be manipulated, but this kid hasn't even faced an undefeated fighter yet. Which tells me his team/Frank Warren are specifically choosing guys who expect to lose and are just there to get paid to fall over. Anderson faced multiple undefeated guys in his build up fights who, even if they're not all that good, are at least going to attempt to fight back and win. And no one was slotting Anderson is as the #1 guy with the WBO. No one was saying Anderson should be fighting Usyk next.

 

Soon Itauma will likely have the option of fighting Parker for a belt

Why not take that on?

 

He should be at least fighting Bakole

 

Bit premature imo. That and it doesn't sit right with me that Itauma gets pushed ahead of Kabayel for a title shot.

 

I'm 50/50 on whether this fight makes sense. There are pros and cons to this.

If Itauma and those around him especially Turki and Warren is serious about him fighting Usyk next year, then Itauma will defo need to fight more than just Franklin to earn the title shot. The main pro is that Franklin could actually give Itauma rounds, but its not particularly a step up from Whyte. Instead Franklin is more of a side step which doesn't make sense when you are being rushed to a title shot and you're at the stage of the career where you don't need to keep fighting probable mismatches in a weak-mid gatekeeper in Franklin.

Itauma is clearly more proven and a lot more talented than Franklin. It is one of these fights where the question is not if he will beat Franklin, but how quickly he will do so really.

I think Franklin will last a few rounds, as he can shell up and make things awkward enough, he offers pretty little in offence but is durable and knows how to defend himself at least. Also, I'm getting the feeling Itauma will try and get rounds in with Franklin rather than go in for the KO. Itauma 5th round TKO.

 

They're trying to make Usyk V Itauma next year, which is possible but Itauma would surely need to do a lot more than beat Franklin.

 

Itauma has had 13 fights for only 26 rounds in total and half of those rounds didn't even go for the full 3 minutes.

His camp want rounds and feel Franklin can survive long enough to provide Itauma with rounds. It's that simple.

 

Itauma needs rounds under his belt to improve. He isn't going to learn much knocking guys out in 1 or 2 rounds and Franklin is being targeted because he is durable. Franklin has never been stopped, went the distance with Joshua and Whyte, and arguably beat Whyte too.

 

Itauma won't stand much chance against Usyk if he goes into the fight with less than 30 pro rounds to his name. He's never fought more than 6 rounds! What sort of preparation for a genius like Usyk would that be? Itauma needs rounds and Franklin is the sort of guy who might be able to provide them to him.