In truth, Itauma has the hand speed of a middleweight which allows him to land the left hand before an opponent can even finish their jab.<\/p>\n
Unlike many traditionalists, Itauma embraces heavy Olympic lifting. He has been recorded power cleaning 140kg and bench pressing 175kg, power that translates directly into the explosive torque of his straight left and left hook.<\/p>\n
Southpaw geometry<\/p>\n
The majority of the heavyweight division fights orthodox so being southpaw gives Itauma a natural power lane against the field.<\/p>\n
He excels at stepping his lead foot outside his opponent\u2019s, creating a direct line for his left hand to split their guard. From there, Itauma does not just throw the straight left; he can turn it into a short, chopping hook or an uppercut that catches fighters leaning forward. After landing, he does not retreat; he uses \u201cpivot exits\u201d to slip out at 45-degree angles, leaving opponents punching at the space he just occupied.<\/p>\n
Itauma also often uses a rapid stutter-step to close distance. This resets his opponent\u2019s timing and allows him to \u201cteleport\u201d into punching range without the telegraphed lunge seen in most heavyweights. He uses disposition feints \u2013 small, twitchy lead-foot movements that mimic an entry \u2013 which freeze opponents or trigger a premature jab. Itauma immediately punishes these with a counter.<\/p>\n
Despite his 6ft 4in frame, he also has exceptional balance. He can transition from circling the ring to a hard plant in a fraction of a second, allowing him to generate massive torque from the ground up without losing his defensive posture.<\/p>\n
Victims of Itauma\u2019s left arm<\/p>\n
The effectiveness of his power is best seen in recent step-ups in competition. Dropping Whyte was a massive statement. Itauma used a lightning-fast flurry topped off by a devastating left, ending the fight inside the opening two minutes.<\/p>\n
In 2024 Itauma blitzed Australian Demsey McKean, stopping the 22-1 fighter in the first round with relentless accuracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In truth, Itauma has the hand speed of a middleweight which allows him to land the left hand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":854097,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4108],"tags":[5060,1935,47963,93,79,1715,16,15,227594],"class_list":["post-854096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-anthony-joshua","tag-boxing","tag-dillian-whyte","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-standard","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-us-content"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116301847021266078","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854096","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=854096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/854097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}