Am I the only one not sold on Itauma?

LOL at this thread..

 

It would be foolhardy to be sold on a very young athlete starting out, considering the amount of ways things can go sideways.

However as a prospect he looks to be the biggest handful coming through the ranks since Mike Tyson, and that is fairly rare air. Let's give the young fella time and space to develop and there is a high chance he will amaze, he has at times already.

 

Well that's unironically the smartest criticism heard on moses itauma. That he isn't yet tested and he might be protected and that might hint towards some awful truth about him that we may not know but the insiders know.

I am not seeing him as already proven. I saw him look a bit unsure when switching to defense once. But most of what's said against him is pure bs. Hunches. Ideas. Feelings.

I'll tell you @Usernamehere why many are not sold. Because he hasn't beaten the top fighters yet. Because some people have doubts and Don't like the hype and think it's great if itauma fails and they can point to having had that opinion for a long time. Being right feels good and if you're wrong it's easy not to mention anymore. Free chance to win, basically.

As it is, this guy is like 21? Looks amazing, speed, technique, power, precision, super aesthetic style, offensive. Whom has Joshua fought at 21? Whom has Fury fought at that age? Usyk would be in the amateurs for another decade or so.

You're saying - already - that you won't be sold by him beating hrgovic, who is consensus top five in the world right now. Well then I think you don't want to be sold. If he beats kabayel and dubois what then? Sold or not? Honestly, if he loses his fight against hrgovic and has a good performance, that would be damn impressive at 21. This guy has loads of experience, a monster chin and precision. Good amateur to boot. And if a win like that doesn't impress you and you claim to be rational, you must already be asking the question "is he an all time great"? Because only then your position makes sense.

And even then people like muhammad ali struggled in some of their fights. How about the old Cooper example?

I think itauma is a tremendous talent. Maybe he doesn't like to get punched, maybe his defense is shaky, maybe he doesnt have the greatest stamina (against franklin he fired from all cylinders, what do you expect? It's experience - and he still got the ko...) whatever. As much as we didn't see enough of him to say he is great, we basically saw NOTHING to say he has any problems. It's all nebulous assumptions and conclusions from nothing and dust.

And the comparison to jared anderson is a sad joke. I was waiting for the guy to lose. He led with his face. He had no defense but his chin and got hit often. Everyone should have seen, that that won't last. Itauma is not remotely in the same league. On the eye test itauma is the best out there right now. Obviously that will change a bit. But something drastic would have to happen for itauma not to be firmly part of the top 10 for the next ten years. (Probably better)

 

What do you mean by too light? Itauma's heaviest weight was 254 against Balogun, and Joshua's was 255 against Franklin. There's basically nothing between them. Moses carries the weight better, too; he leverages it in his shots without losing speed.

Whenever Joshua has weighed in heavier, it has slowed him down; it did against Franklin, and it did in the second fight against Usyk. Height-wise, Moses is listed at 6'4, but maybe closer to 6'5. Google pictures of him with Fury; he doesn't look that much smaller than Fury, but God knows what height Fury actually is. I think he's given 4 different heights in his career, with the highest being a laughable 6'9.

Joshua would absolutely be bothered by Itauma's offensive arsenal, particularly his speed and the southpaw angles. Mihai Nistor, a 6 foot southpaw had him legless and stopped him as an amateur. Usyk, another southpaw, was seconds away from stopping him in their first fight.

If Moses can scramble Franklin with one monstrous uppercut, and Joshua couldn't put a dent in him for 12 rounds, Joshua would be in serious trouble with his amateurish, chin-up, no head movement, 1-2 style against Itauma. He's a complete nightmare for him stylistically.

Moses is a pure unicorn, the best pure, natural heavyweight talent I have seen in my 20+ years of watching boxing. Footwork, speed, ring IQ, ring generalship, combination punching, shot selection, I can't think of a current prospect in the sport who passes the eye test as easily as Itauma does. Why don't you think he passes the eye test?

I will happily eat my words on this and hold my hands up if he does get found out, but he is more naturally technically gifted at 21 than both Joshua and Fury, and it's not even close.

 

Yeah, it's not a huge stepping stone to beat Franklin I agree, but it's impressive to knock him out. Joshua didn't hurt him at all for 12 rounds. I was never set on Joshua, really, he was always a KO waiting to happen, I saw him hurt several times in the amateurs, and was lucky to get the win against Savon in the first round of the 2012 London Olympics too. I'm far more impressed with Itauma's overall skill set at 21 than Joshua's.

AJ did not adjust his style to the pros, he was well-matched by Hearn, who knew he was a KO waiting to happen at some stage. It was remarkable that it was Andy Ruiz that did it, but an ancient Wlad nearly got him out of there too, and he made all the same mistakes against Dubois as he did as an amateur. As I say, I'm happy to hold my hands up if I get it wrong on Itauma, feel free to quote me on this and I'll come back and eat the humble pie.

 

Wlad definitely came in 100% prepared, but I still think he was missing that crucial half-step. I think the version of him that beat Sultan or Haye would have finished Joshua off after he put him down.

That's an interesting take, I do think Usyk's HW run is overblown. AJ vs Wlad is definitely one of my favourite heavyweight fights, I remember watching it live in a bar and the whole place was packed and everyone was going crazy. I don't know whether I'd have Usyk's win against Fury in the first fight slightly ahead of Joshua vs Wlad. I definitely would if Fury hadn't embarrassed himself against Ngannou in the fight before Usyk.

 

Get glasses lol

 

I think he has a sus chin and possibly bad gas tank, hence the way he's been navigated. The British fans are desperate to regain the heavyweight division, which is why he's getting so much undue hype. They simultaneously think he's the greatest heavyweight right now, but still too young to fight anyone close to his age or ranking. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

Hrgovic is an interesting test. But worth nothing he has been exposed before, so his handlers might think he might be shot and old enough for Itauma to get the win. His fight over fan favorite king of the UK bums Dave Allen seems like it was made to puff up British fans to build artificial hype.

I honestly doubt he will fight for a belt; it'll probably be emailed to him. And if he does fight for one, I image it will be against some obscure nobody who suspiciously gets ranked.

 

Tyson fought 12-13 times a year and won a world title in his second year 13th fight of the year.

Naw. Just no.

 

The why couldn't joshua floor him ?

 

Yup. There'll always be a new excuse