{"id":362581,"date":"2025-12-21T13:26:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T13:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/362581\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T13:26:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T13:26:09","slug":"lawrence-okolie-plans-mega-clash-with-moses-itauma-in-africa-in-2026-exclusive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/362581\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawrence Okolie Plans Mega Clash With Moses Itauma In Africa In 2026 [Exclusive]"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lawrence Okolie and Moses Itauma will face off in a WBA final eliminator if the two heavyweights win their next fights.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am in a final eliminator against Moses Ituma after this one, and his fight,\u201d said Okolie \u00a0(22-1, 16 KOs) in an exclusive interview with KO on Sports Illustrated.<\/p>\n

It would be a great stylistic match-up between the former Olympic boxer and the division\u2019s hottest prospect.<\/p>\n

Okolie must first get past Ebenezer Tetteh<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, this is the one before the big one [with Mr. Ituama], this is the warm-up, I\u2019m gonna go out there do my job. Don’t do anything silly, just win and be back here for a huge one.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201chuge one\u201d is a showdown with Ituama in Nigeria. Both fighters have Nigerian heritage, so it would be easy to promote the fight in Nigeria or the United Kingdom, where they train and live.<\/p>\n

\"ok\"<\/p>\n

Press Conference for Ituama vs. Whyte. was mild save for the war of words between Raymond Ford and Abraham Nova. | Joseph Hammond<\/p>\n

Fresh off his most recent and dramatic victory over Dillian Whyte, Moses Itauma’s team has already signed the next match for their 20-year-old boxing phenom. Itauma’s next fight will be against American heavyweight Jermaine Franklin on Saturday, January 24, 2026. The match will headline The Magnificent 7 event at Co-op Live in Manchester,<\/p>\n

Itauma\u2019s one-round destruction of a clearly faded Whyte (31-4) sent a chill through the world of boxing. Every pundit of the barstool or television variety has offered their thoughts on who Mr. Ituama should fight next.<\/p>\n

MORE: Okolie vs Tetteh Preview & Prediction
<\/a><\/p>\n

All Eyes On Uncle Frank\"Frank<\/p>\n

IMAGO \/ PA Images<\/p>\n

It’s promoter Frank Warren whose opinion mattered the most in this debate, however. Warren initially focused on a December 13 event in Manchester, United Kingdom, for his heavyweight sensation. However, that option fell through, and the fight with Mr. Franklin, Jr. emerged.<\/p>\n

Frank Warren has said in recent interviews that Michael Hunter (24-1-2) and then WBA \u2018regular\u2019 champion Kubrat Pulev (32-4) were possible opponents. \u00a0Pulev no longer has the WBA strap, having been stopped in Dubai by Murat Gassiev this last weekend in an IBA Pro card.<\/p>\n

Croatian Contender Also Considered For Clash\"Filip<\/p>\n

Hrgovic was also a possible Ituama opponent | IMAGO \/ PRiME Media Images<\/p>\n

Another option Warren considered was Filip Hrgovic(19-1), who overcame a cut and David Adeleye (14-2) in his own crucial victory that kept him in the mix of top contenders in the heavyweight division. <\/p>\n

The fast-handed and fleet-footed Ituama will cause problems for Okolie, who is a great boxer. Many feel Itauma is a potential boxing superstar on the rise, and he should be matched carefully to reach his potential. A fight with Okolie would be an intriguing style match-up.<\/p>\n

The Latest Boxing News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lawrence Okolie and Moses Itauma will face off in a WBA final eliminator if the two heavyweights win…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-362581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}