Moses Itauma vs. Mike Balogun set for May 24.

Itauma slowly but steadily building.
No spectacle but wise match to make for him.

 

I wish Queensberry wouldn't have hyped Itauma up so insanely, saying he's going to be the youngest champ ever and beat Tyson's record. Or Frank making all these claims that he's going to fight Hrgovic, Joyce, even Charles Martin next. Because it just makes a fight against Mike Balogun feel so meh, even tho this is a normal fight for a guy of Itauma's age/experience.

I remember loads of people thought Balogun took a dive against Gassiev. Haven't seen any of his other fights. Can't imagine he'll make Itauma work too hard.

 

Seems like a step down but hey, I’m all for a young prospect being built up properly before biting off more than he can chew.

 

I wouldn't mind this level of opponent if Itauma was more active but its disappointing given he's been sitting about for 5 months

 

He probably should have fought sooner especially in fighting a good journeyman in Balogun considering where he is in his career and the fact his last couple fights in the span of a year haven't gone past 2 rounds unless he had an injury or something.

I do agree that Itauma should take the slow path and build up his reputation in terms of his opposition over time, and earning respect, rather than selling out - taking the shortcut and lose the respect of the press and the people and stunt his development. But, Itauma does need to fight more regularly than once every six months which has been the case in his last 2 fights when fighting a good journeyman in Balogun but six months make sense if its at the contender level such as Kabayel or Parker but then again its FAR too early for Itauma to take these type of fights.

As for the actual Itauma V Balogun fight? Itauma should surely have enough for Balogun - TKO in the early to mid rounds (3rd/4th round TKO for Itauma).

 

I was hoping for a better opponent, someone like Charles Martin or Jermaine Franklin.

Balogun has been inactive since the loss to Gassiev, and he's old. His record is deceiving, he fought very soft opposition before Gassiev.

 

Did people really think he was going to get pushed into top fights already? That would be dumb and unnecessarily risky. He'll likely alternate between fights like this and fringe contenders for a while.He's only 20 and the division is about to enter a very chaotic period where it will likely be a struggle for any one fighter to establish dominance. He'll be maneuvered into fighting for a vacant belt when the belts splinter off in the next year or two.

 

This is fine. My concern is WHY is he fighting infrequently? If they're going to put him in against guys who don't have much of a chance, why not fight every few months? He's going to blast this dude out in 1-2 rounds.

Time will tell what Ituama's ceiling truly is, but he's a LEGIT prospect. In terms of a combo of hand speed and power, he appears to be Mike Tyson level. He needs another 10 easy fights, then he needs to move up to some harder fights. But he's the real deal in terms of someone who MAY be a future dominant champ.

 

This seems to be the script for HW prospects in general today I don't know what to tell you.

 

The bum bashing continues.

 

LOL. It is an entirely appropriate fight but its comical how they are talking Usyk and fight a ham'n'egger.

 

British boxing 101.

 

This is a step down from McKean, and a big one. Itauma should be fighting experienced journeymen, not mediocre boxers with padded records.

 

Looks like someone has gone through the division to find someone with an impressive record (21-1) but hasn’t fought anyone of note and been inactive recently to be a body for hire. The opponent is also a very small HW in 6ft 1.

Itauma is clearly all talk and no walk at this point. When you have fighters like Joyce, Whyte, AJ all with high rankings and there for the taking. Why are those fights not being made if Itauma is half cop?