So some people are calling Itauma a "British fraud" or a "New David Price" which is silly. Moses got stopped by a world class fighter at 21, which is not a new thing for a very young fighters once they step up in competetion, especially against tough, experienced and iron-chinned opponents. - Daniel Dubois at 23 got stopped by Joe Joyce who had tons more of experience and iron chin; - Wladimir Klitschko at 22 got stopped by way more experienced Ross Puritty who also happened to have a concrete chin. And it was very similar to Itauma vs Hrgovic actually - Wlad dominanted Puritty from pillar to post but wasted too much energy and got stopped in the 11th; - Joe Louis got KOed by wastely more experienced former champ Max Schmeling. He was exceptional talent, but still lack of experience didn't allow him to win this fight; - even Ali at 21 got a tough fights against far inferior talents like Doug Jones and Henry Cooper who managed to knock him down. Mike Tyson was the only one who went through heavyweight division unscarred at such a tender age which just shows how SPECIAL he was. What about others? - Lennox Lewis hadn't fought a live opponent until he was 25 (and yet, he got stopped quickly at 28 by a HUGE underdog) - Larry Holmes took his time to develop and went to the championship level at 28 - The same goes for Vitali and Usyk who came to the top while approaching their 30s - Even guys who developed quickly like Foreman and Bowe - they still reached top level at 24 and didn't last on there long probably because of the lack of experience too. So, why wright a talented guy like Itauma off now? Can he be a bust? He surely can if he doesn't manage to learn on his mistakes and gets broken mentally by this loss like Jared Anderson did or Panchito Bojado at the lighter weight. But the guy has a sh1tload of talent and, most importantly, doesn't have an uncorrectable weaknesses like David Price or Michael Grant did have.
His story is absolutely not over. Hrgovic and Sanchez were written off, but clearly have something more to say. Same was probably said about Fury post-McDermott. It's time to find out how much "not in love" with boxing is, because it sounds like Anderson all over again.
This is just the way of the world right now, you're either a 'fan boy' or a 'hater', the best fighter since Ali or a tomato can hype job. When you think about it now, It was a tall order going in against a top 10 fighter who is probably the most durable in the division, especially when your only preparation is blasting out every opponent within 5 rounds. It was just to early for him, that's it. On the positive side, his chin didn't look particularly suspect and he showed some bravery at the end, so he has ticked a few boxes. He just needs to build up his IQ and ring smarts and learn how to control a fight and not waste energy, learn to pace himself and not empty the gas tank, that kind of thing comes with experience though and he's 21 years old and is still pretty malleable. I do have my reservations about Ben Davison as his trainer, I'm just not convinced by the bloke if I'm honest.
Tyson had a very close fight against Tillis, so he also had his early struggles. This was of clourse much worse. The question is if it makes Itauama scared of gassing out and thereby too cautious going forward. It depends. Cooney never rebounded from his loss to Holmes, which also was a huge step up considering he'd only feasted on washed up former conteders at that point, and AJ never really looked the same after Ruiz. But Louis and Wlad managed to turn it around, and Foreman also eventually.