Will Moses Itauma be the best ever British heavyweight?

[Jimmy2025]

I say yes.

[keithmoonhangover]

In short, no. He's a hype job, who hasn't even taken a shot

[Jimmy2025]

In short, no. He's a hype job, who hasn't even taken a shot

Interesting. I'm old enough to remember people calling Sugar Ray Leonard a hype-job when he first turned over.

[JC]

Two key questions

What's his chin like?

Are we counting Lennox as British?

I really hope he does turn out to be something special as the timing would be perfect.

[Controversial]

Far too soon to say, he's only had 11 fights (23 rounds) and not been tested or hit flush to see how he reacts. Will be interesting to see how he goes though, youth on his side, fast, can punch and a southpaw so lots to like.

[Controversial]

Two key questions

Are we counting Lennox as British?

Lewis was born in the UK, Itauma wasn't.

[Jimmy2025]

Two key questions

What's his chin like?

Are we counting Lennox as British?

I really hope he does turn out to be something special as the timing would be perfect.

Lennox is counted as British.

The chin question is always out there, of course, rightly so. The way he has gone around the gyms sparring shows he is confident in it.

I have him as the best heavyweight in the country NOW (if Tyson is retired) on ability alone and from how he is so much better than the rest in the gyms (yes, sparring is sparring).

[cormack]

premature to even bother thinking about

[JC]

Two key questions

Are we counting Lennox as British?

Lewis was born in the UK, Itauma wasn't.

I'm definitely not questioning Lewis's right to be British.

But I always think where they learned to box is key in who has the best claim on a fighter.

So, while Lennox fought as a British fighter, in my mind Canada annoyingly have a better claim.

In the same way I think of Honeygahn and Whyte as a British boxers despite them being born in Jamacia.

I realise I might be in the minority looking at it that way.

[Jimmy2025]

premature to even bother thinking about

Depends on what your interests are, I suppose. Mine is heavyweight boxing. We've not had a good heavyweight turn pro since Fury, and that was 16 years ago. I think that given my age, Itauma will be the last good British heavyweight whose career I'll get to follow (if I'm lucky). No other Brit can handle him in the gym already and he is barely 20. Why not think about how good he might be?

[Controversial]

I think a lot depends if he can keep his feet on the ground, stay professional and focussed. Easy for younger ones to go off the rails once they’ve got a few quid and fame.

[gilgamesh]

I think a lot depends if he can keep his feet on the ground, stay professional and focussed. Easy for younger ones to go off the rails once they’ve got a few quid and fame.

Yeah that's one of them intangibles that's every bit as important as how good is his chin? Does he maintain the discipline needed to be at the very top?

I'm sure many more fighters than we realize have fallen victim to that 2nd one. Staying motivated when you're already extremely well off, and have the means to do whatever you please definitely takes a lot of will power. The kind most people don't have.

[mickey1975]

He's shown no cause for concern in either the amateurs or pros and there are no rumours coming out of gyms. That alone is probably a first.

[forcefraser]

Lewis fought Mason in his 15th fight. His first real step up. Moses has time.

.looks a real talent but he needs a hard distance fight against a guy who comes to win to show if he has the knackers when it gets hard down the stretch.

A bit like a Mercer for Lewis, but maybe not that brutal. The Mercer fight showed the doubters that Lewis was for real and had plenty of cajones

[joshj909]

Based on the percentage of any young prospect touted as a future world champ actually going on to succeed that being low, the odds of a young prospect going on to be a top 5 all time heavyweight are pretty slim. Especially as he doesn't have any credentials so far such as an Olympic gold medal or an actual live body on his record.

Not because of his skills, so it's not impossible but unlikely as we'd be predicted the future for something extremely statistically unlikely.

[damage]

He is really Slovakian!

[gp.]

In short, no. He's a hype job, who hasn't even taken a shot

Interesting. I'm old enough to remember people calling Sugar Ray Leonard a hype-job when he first turned over.

And in your time, how many people have you seen it said about who did turn out to be hype jobs?

[Jimmy2025]

In short, no. He's a hype job, who hasn't even taken a shot

Interesting. I'm old enough to remember people calling Sugar Ray Leonard a hype-job when he first turned over.

And in your time, how many people have you seen it said about who did turn out to be hype jobs?

Lots, but I've never been taken in by one (in the UK). If I'm wrong this time it'll be a first. British professional heavyweught boxing is a tiny, incestuous community. This is the first man I've only heard positives about from people on the inside when they are off the record.

[Controversial]

Don’t forget the amount of hype around Audley Harrison was crazy, lots of so called experts and people in the business predicted him to be our next HW champ. Wasn’t his debut shown on Saturday mainstream TV or am I remembering that wrong.

[Boxerbeetle]

Obviously very early to say. I'll go with No as it would be a very rare HW to be better than Lennox, but who knows. Certainly someone I'm looking forward to following closely.

[margaret thatcher]

the price hype was crazy too, he was the hottest thing in boxing for a bit , espn prospect of the year etc. granted he'd had lotsa previous question marks shown in the ams

[Jimmy2025]

Surely people on here can see what Moses does in the ring and know he is light years ahead of where Audley and Price ever were already in terms of ability? It's fairly glaring. Superb footwork, excellent judge of distance, good head movement, extremely fast hands, killer instinct, genuine confidence, etc....

We'll await the chin and stones under pressure check.

[MightyWarrior]

I really hope he is, massively exciting, but on the balance of things, I don’t think he’ll do better than Lennox did, because that was top tier level stuff. Better than AJ? maybe .. He’s got everything he needs and his chin looks good enough, as far as we can tell - No alarm bells, which there certainly were with price, even before he got beat - due to those bad amateur KO losses.

The one thing we can see no sign of yet, and we won’t know until it happens, is has he got the heart when things are going badly, really going against him and it looks like he’s probably gonna lose… to turn things around in those circumstances - which the greats can do

[rd350lc]

I really hope he is, massively exciting, but on the balance of things, I don’t think he’ll do better than Lennox did, because that was top tier level stuff. Better than AJ? maybe .. He’s got everything he needs and his chin looks good enough, as far as we can tell - No alarm bells.

Has anyone actually hit him flush yet ?

[golden_labrador]

I doubt he'll be as good as Lewis but there's room below that to still have an amazing career and be world heavyweight champion