{"id":334105,"date":"2025-08-10T21:25:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T21:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/334105\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T21:25:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T21:25:10","slug":"moses-itauma-hopes-to-follow-floyd-mayweathers-path-not-focused-on-oleksandr-usyk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/334105\/","title":{"rendered":"Moses Itauma Hopes To Follow Floyd Mayweather\u2019s Path; Not Focused On Oleksandr Usyk"},"content":{"rendered":"

Perhaps no boxer left a better blueprint for how to navigate their career better than Floyd Mayweather Jr.<\/a>, a five-division champion, 2021 International Boxing Hall of Famer and box-office gold mine.
Rapidly ascending heavyweight contender Moses Itauma<\/a> hopes he can say that he followed the same path as Mayweather (50-0, 27 KOs), ahead of his fight against Dillian Whyte<\/a> on Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on DAZN PPV<\/a>.
\u201cHe made a lot of money in this sport, came out with his brains intact, no damage and whatnot and nobody can say, ‘Yeah, I [beat] him up,\u201d Itauma told The Ring\u2019s Louis Hart.<\/a> \u201cThat\u2019s the career that I want. When people are insecure about themselves, they put a little doubt, a little bit of pressure on someone, hoping that they\u2019re going to break because it makes them feel better.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Floyd Mayweather, he was such a good fighter. [He was] 50-0, people are insecure about that. People don\u2019t want to accept that reality, so they put a bit of doubt and pressure on Floyd Mayweather to get him to crack just so they can feel better. I don\u2019t look at it from that perspective. I look at it like, ‘Wow, he\u2019s achieved a lot.'”<\/p>\n

Itauma (12-0, 10 KOs) has quickly asserted himself as one of boxing\u2019s best heavyweight prospects in recent memory with his dynamic speed, skill and power and can take a significant step in his development with a win over Whyte. The 20-year-old has won eight consecutive fights by stoppage, all of which have come inside the first two rounds.<\/p>\n

Whyte (31-3, 21 KOs), though, is by far the most significant test of Itauma\u2019s career<\/a>. He has fought for the heavyweight title and has shared the ring with some of the better heavyweights in the world when he fought them before his sixth-round stoppage loss to Tyson Fury in April 2022. Whyte has won three straight fights since that defeat, though, the level of competition was subpar.<\/p>\n

In his last fight, Whyte, 37, stopped Ebenezer Tetteh after the seventh round on Dec. 15.<\/p>\n

Itauma, who is a 6-foot-4 1\/2 southpaw and is ranked No. 1 (WBO), No. 2 (WBA), No. 6 (IBF) and No. 11 (WBC), could be in a position for a world title shot with an impressive win Saturday.<\/a> That title shot, if it came to fruition in the near future, could come against undisputed heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk (24-0, 15 KOs).
His Excellency Turki Alalshikh hasn\u2019t been bashful about his intentions to make Usyk vs. Itauma <\/a>should he get past Whyte. For Itauma, though, a chance to face the best heavyweight of this generation for all of the belts is the last thing on his mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not thinking about it,\u201d Itauma said. \u201cI\u2019m not [thinking], ‘I wish that could happen’ because right now, I\u2019ve got a serious contender like Dillian Whyte in front of me, but after, maybe.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Perhaps no boxer left a better blueprint for how to navigate their career better than Floyd Mayweather Jr.,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4108],"tags":[1935,10188,10181,10187,10186,10179,4496,10182,10183,10184,10185,10180,10193,10192,10175,10173,10174,10190,10176,10172,10194,10189,79,10191,10171,10178,16,15,10177],"class_list":{"0":"post-334105","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-boxing-community","10":"tag-boxing-fights","11":"tag-boxing-history","12":"tag-boxing-interviews","13":"tag-boxing-magazine","14":"tag-boxing-news","15":"tag-boxing-photos","16":"tag-boxing-rankings","17":"tag-boxing-results","18":"tag-boxing-schedule","19":"tag-boxing-videos","20":"tag-disqualification","21":"tag-draw","22":"tag-fight","23":"tag-fighter","24":"tag-fighter-news","25":"tag-knockout","26":"tag-latest-boxing-matches","27":"tag-ring","28":"tag-ring-magazine","29":"tag-split-decision","30":"tag-sports","31":"tag-technical-knockout","32":"tag-the-ring","33":"tag-top-fighters","34":"tag-uk","35":"tag-united-kingdom","36":"tag-upcoming-boxing-matches"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115006585145935753","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}