Moses Itauma: The Next Heavyweight Champion?
Prince Naseem Hamed has never been shy with an opinion, but this one lands like a left hook.
Moses Itauma, he insists, is “a million times better” than Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury. Not just a prospect. Not just the next big thing. A heavyweight he believes both former world champions would rather avoid.
On Saturday night at London’s O2 Arena, the 21-year-old from Chatham gets his first chance to prove it, stepping in with Croatia’s Filip Hrgovic for the vacant IBF heavyweight title. Fourteen fights into his professional career, unbeaten, unruffled, and now on the brink of history.
‘On another level’
“Moses is on another level to the likes of Tyson Fury and Tyson would say that himself. Tyson would not want to fight Moses and neither would Joshua,” Hamed told BBC Sport. “If they did I would say they are very brave.”
This is not some fringe voice talking. Hamed was British boxing royalty in the 1990s, a showman who turned ring walks into theatre and knockouts into art. He knows what it is to be anointed early, to carry the weight of expectation and still deliver.
He sees the same thing in Itauma.
“I can’t compare Moses. He is a million times better than them,” he said, doubling down on the claim that will echo all the way to the Fury–Joshua negotiating table.
Chasing history, shadowed by Tyson
Victory over Hrgovic would make Itauma the second-youngest heavyweight world champion of all time, behind only Mike Tyson. He would also reach the summit one fight quicker than Joshua, who claimed his first world title in his 16th professional bout.
The numbers matter. So does the company he’s being placed in.
Fury, now twice beaten by Oleksandr Usyk, and Joshua, with four defeats in 34 fights, reshaped British heavyweight boxing over the past decade. Hamed is quick to acknowledge that.
“I think Tyson Fury was amazing for British boxing and what he achieved, what he did and brought to the game and how colourful he was as a personality,” the 52-year-old said. “I think Joshua did an amazing job early in his career to win a world title and be an ambassador for British boxing.”
Then he draws a hard line.
This, he insists, is something else.
A familiar path for a former prodigy
Hamed’s belief in Itauma is rooted in his own story. The Sheffield-born fighter became Britain’s youngest world champion in 1995 when he dethroned Steve Robinson for the WBO featherweight title in Cardiff at 21 years and 230 days.
If Itauma beats Hrgovic, he will miss that British age record by just 14 days.
Hamed shrugs at the detail.
Records are background noise to him. Potential is the headline.
“Winning a national title as an amateur aged 11 and then having in your head all the way through your amateur career that you’ll be world champion at 21 – I visualised that. I think it’s very much the same for Moses,” he said.
“I’m so confident that Moses is going to be the heavyweight champion of the world. I’m so confident that he’ll defend that belt for as long as he wants.”
Hrgovic: the underdog with pedigree
Across the ring stands a man with far more miles on the clock and far more names on his record.
Filip Hrgovic, 34, brings an Olympic bronze medal and 21 professional bouts, with just a single defeat – to current WBO world champion Daniel Dubois in 2024. He has boxed better opposition, walked through harder nights, and yet he arrives in London as the underdog.
On paper, this is the step up everyone said Itauma needed. A proven heavyweight, big enough, strong enough, experienced enough to ask questions no one else has been able to pose.
Hamed is unconvinced.
“On paper it’s a test but I don’t think the night that we watch it it will be a test,” he said. “I think it’s going to be one of Moses’ easiest nights of his career and he’ll win a world title.”
A throne waiting to be claimed
The timing is intriguing. While Joshua and Fury finally move towards their long-awaited all-British showdown later this year, a 21-year-old south of the river is being talked about as the man who could surpass them both.
One era is edging towards its defining clash. Another might be starting in the same city, in the same division, with a fighter who has barely begun to scratch the surface of what his most ardent believer thinks he can become.
Hamed has planted the flag. Now Itauma has to fight his way to it.
