It took Moses Itauma less than two minutes to drop and stop Dillian Whyte in Riyadh on Saturday night.
Whyte was sent sprawling from a short right hook; he fell face first heavily and somehow beat the count, but his legs betrayed him for just a few seconds. He stood, unsteady and glassy eyed, and the fight was sensibly waved off. Whyte complained, Itauma celebrated, and the sport has a new star.
Itauma is just 20, the win was his 13th and the eighth to finish in the first round – it was, however, his first win against a named and respected opponent. There will be voices of criticism pointing out that Whyte had previously been stopped three times and that he is, at 37, too old for the game. Forget that, because it was still a big step up in class for Itauma.
Whyte had prepared in private and in solitude, his anger at being overlooked a clear motivation. He had also transformed his body; in his previous fight last December he had been 261lb, but for Itauma he had trimmed down to just 244lbs. It was the lightest he has been for 10 years. There was clearly a lot of pride involved. “I just wish the people giving me no chance would come up to my face and say it to me,” Whyte had told me two nights before the fight. He had not accepted Itauma as a payday – he believed he could win.
On the night, Whyte never looked comfortable, never looked relaxed, and in the short life of the fight, he barely threw a punch. Whyte was clipped very early by a punch over a jab that he missed with. It was an early warning, but more than that, it showed Whyte just how fast Itauma was, and just how easy he could be hit by the younger man.
Itauma looked calm from the opening bell – he seemed calm during the six minutes that Whyte kept him waiting in the ring. Itauma never wasted a punch, never got too close, and picked every punch he landed with. He is tremendously methodical in his approach.
After about a minute of measuring and movement, Whyte was clipped high on the head by a right hook, and he fell back to the ropes, still upright, but stunned. The young heavyweight switched to the body, went back to the head, and as Whyte teetered desperately along the ropes, Itauma adjusted his feet and landed the final punch. Whyte went down in a heap.
It was a dream finish in many ways, but not in all ways: Itauma needs competitive rounds, there are still things that we need to see. There remain a lot of crucial unknowns in the boxing life and career of Moses Itauma. How will Itauma fair in deeper waters? How will he fare if he’s caught clean on the chin? “We see what he can do in the gym every day,” said Ben Davison, his trainer, “but I did want some more rounds.” Whyte had been selected for his toughness, but he couldn’t pose the key questions.
It should be said that if Itauma was from New York or Las Vegas, we would be raving about him being the saviour of boxing. Instead, he is from Chatham in Kent. He started his young life in Slovakia. It makes no difference; he can fight.
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On the Thursday before the first bell, I sat with Frank Warren, who is Itauma’s promoter. He was confident Itauma would win, but he knew the risks. I asked him if Itauma would be ready for a world-title fight if he beat Whyte. He never hesitated for a second and replied: “It depends how he wins.”
After the fight up in the ring, I spoke to Warren again. He was amazed at Itauma’s composure, his ability to not let his heart rule his head. I asked him again if he would put Itauma in a world-title fight? “In theory, yes,” was his reply this time. It seems everybody wants the kid to get some rounds.
In the ring, I also asked Itauma if he was ready for a world-title fight against the undisputed champion, Oleksandr Usyk. “No, I don’t deserve that just yet,” he replied honestly and openly. “Let me fight the others, the men who are meant to fight him. I would fight [Agit] Kabayel and [Joseph] Parker.” It was not a challenge, just a simple sentence of fact.
At ringside, Parker was quick to say that he would fight Itauma. However, Parker is the WBO’s mandatory for Usyk, and the negotiations for that fight have been extended to September. “There is no rush,” Parker said. And that is the truth.
Itauma moved a stepped closer to proving all the predictions right on Saturday night and now everybody is watching.