Joseph Parker vs Moses Itauma

Parker wins comfortably on points.

Don't get me wrong, I like Itauma, but Parker is no McKean.

 

I'm not sure Zhang's necessarily the best example...

Before his first official loss (Hrgovic) he was 24-0-1 having beaten 0 top-200 fighters and drawn with Jerry Forrest.

Granted Zhang now is a different animal... But Itauma has done more in his first 9 fights than Zhilei did in his first 25.

It's a decent start to a career... He just has a long way to go before he should be seen as a serious/legit threat as opposed to what he is - a prospect.

 

Absolutely.

And Dubois is actually a good role model in this sense (not so much in the deliberate fouling sense).. he's had losses but he's improved from them and developed into a serious fighter before he's even quite in his prime - it's set him up well to potentially dominate an era.

I'd far rather young fighters see this as a successful role model than guys who get to go on long runs of crushing bums and get undeserved reputation.

 

Itauma has potential but he's still very unproven. Parker KOs people about as often as Belal Muhammad but he should still win by points comfortably here.