A hyped fighter feasting on washed names knows for his powerful, fast combinations. Sure, the next three fights will likely draw a clear distinction between them, but I can't help but see echoes from the past, especially with some talk about how he would threaten some experienced top contenders.
At this point, he is exactly like that. The KO of Whyte the other night was a textbook case of a washed-up former contender being fed to a young beast to inflate the reputation of the young fighter and manipulate perceptions. The only thing that made it even remotely 'interesting' beyond that was the tiny possibility that Whyte might somehow nail him with a left hook early, but even that 1% chance evaporated when we saw Whyte enter the ring with a resigned manner of a man who knew he was going to lose. I actually found Itauma's win over McKean to be more impressive than he's win against Whyte. But people don't know McKean like they do Whyte.
McKean though was really only ever a good journeyman at best whose was literally ranked 100th at the highest. Whereas, Whyte was a solid contender at one point and was in the top 5 HWs for a while.
Yes, he was not much good but McKean was big and awkward enough to take Hrgovic into the 12th with spoiling tactics using his size. Whyte was better in his prime but he's always been a bit of a brawler and his chin has been deteriorating for years. Whyte was never a cagey survivor type, so a 'shot' version is just a sitting duck.
I think he is more talented than Cooney. Itauama hits hard with both hands. Cooney was a left handed fighter made to fight as a right hander. So his left hook was amazing but his right hand was inconsistent. Itauma throws better combos, has faster hands and is a better 2 handed puncher. Do i think any Itauama punch has as much power as Cooney's left hook? No. But Itauama is more talented. That being said, folks are getting carried away. Let's see Itauama go up vs Hrgovic before we proclaim him to be the future of the division.
Norton was consider veteran by the time he fought Holmes (and who knows how much this war took out of him), arguably past it when facing Stephens and Shavers, and definitely past with the performances against LeDoux and Cobb. The latter was a symbolic revenge on Earnie who was beaten by Tex a fight prior, but clearly showed the depth of Kenny's decline.
Norton was an utter shell of himself. Literally his last fight. It's about as meaningful as Itauma's win over Whyte is.
