What's the excuse for Moses Itauma inactivity?

Honestly they should throw him in with Wardley if he's not rematching Parker/fighting Usyk.

 

Unfortunately, zero-worship plays a part in most careers these days. The 'oh, he'll learn from the loss' analogy died with resin troughs and smelling salts.

 

Franklin was offered the fight, didn't want it; Pulev priced himself out; and Chisora turned down 2 million. It's hard to blame Itauma for this when several decent fighters are being offered the fight and turning it down. There are only so many fighters that fit the bill of top 25/30 guys who can give him rounds and aren't just going to turn up for the paycheque like Whyte did.

 

I commented similar on a recent itauma thread regarding starting to search out the “names” for his resume-you can’t have the hype that comes along with beating them and then start backtracking and ask to be given time, it’s sink or swim time now!

it seems like potential opponents are asking big money-if he’s as big a draw as frank warren says he is then why can’t they pay healthy money? I wouldn’t be suprised if he turned out to be as talented as they say, but is he a big ticket seller? I’m not so sure….

 

He would crush Sanchez in 2 rounds anyway. Sanchez is lucky that Itauma rejected the fight.

 

Where did you get that from facebook lol.

 

To be fair, Itauma's chin and stamina hasn't been tested at all. Not one bit. So, that will be very interesting when Itauma does get tested eventually. (I hope!)

What I will say about Itauma is that he is genuinely super talented offensively and is incredibly dangerous for the first 3 rounds.

 

It probably has to do with the discord between the rhetoric by Itauma's promoters as to Itauma's ability, and what they are actually offering potential opponents financially. If Warren is to hype up Itauma as a mercurial talent and a bogeyman of the HW division that will destroy anything in his path, then he should probably offer potential opponents a purse greater than an out of date Freddo and a sportsdirect voucher.

 

It makes no sense to have turned down the Sanchez fight

 

He's shy.

 

They are still hanging out for Pulev but Pulev wants no part of Itauma.

"We gotta see what happens with this Pulev situation because the WBA ordered that fight [Pulev vs. Itauma] and he can’t get out of it and we’ll see where we go with it."

 

I'm pretty sure at this point chisora wouldn't fight anyone for 2 million. He has been talking so much about his 50th fight and the possible opponents and how the money has to be right - i feel like he expects at least five if not 8-10 million, no matter the opponent. So it can hardly be counted as pricing himself out against itauma. I don't think chisora cares whom he loses against and a young untested talent who would rather win the fight quickly than beat him to the punch for 12 rounds is the healthiest opponent at this point for chisora.

It's good that itauma has the hype, it is good that he is built up with a slow pace, not stepping up too quickly at 20. But he should have way more fights on undercards with decent but unknown opponents or gatekeepers. With the small hype he has going they should have the money for the opponents if itauma doesn't want too much himself.

It reminds me a bit of hrgovic who could get noone to fight him until and eben after zhang pummeled him around (and actually should have won). Wasn't it warren, too, who wasn't willing to pay for decent opponents in order to make a name for hrgovic?

 

I guess it's a little bit catch-22...

If they schedule him a lot of fights then it looks like they're handpicking guys they know he can deal with in a round or two and it becomes obvious they're not risking him with anyone good... Because anyone good is going to demand more than a couple of months to prepare and if they take him rounds and/or hurt him then he could potentially have to pull out of the next one - logistically, it's probably much easier said than done.


Equally, fight once or twice a year and fans are going to start asking (rightly, IMHO) why he's getting matched against guys who are only lasting a round or two and when he's going to get put into a serious fight.
But then the difficulty is with getting him a serious fight is the draw isn't there yet, and if someone decent beats him and he completely selfdestructs from then onwards they don't necessarily even get much credit for it... So the money has to be there, but it's not, yet.


I'd like to see him get out into some more difficult fights, but I get that it might not be as easy as it should be - especially if he expects to earn a certain amount for it.