{"id":75236,"date":"2025-08-17T14:43:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T14:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/75236\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T14:43:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T14:43:10","slug":"matching-itauma-isnt-easy-parker-will-fight-anyone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/75236\/","title":{"rendered":"Matching Itauma isn’t easy, Parker will fight anyone"},"content":{"rendered":"

Such is the relentless pursuit of the next breaking news story to analyse, Moses Itauma<\/a> didn’t even have time to celebrate or let this achievement sink in before being asked what was next after a first-round finish<\/a> of two-time former interim world champion Dillian Whyte<\/a>.
His latest destructive display had virtually retired someone he grew up watching, a celebrated figure in British boxing, and that wasn’t enough. So the 20-year-old teased, then graciously sidestepped a prospective matchup with undisputed titleholder Oleksandr Usyk<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Instead, the WBO’s No. 1-ranked contender called for a matchup with one of the elite names all chasing the unbeaten Ukrainian’s throne atop the sport’s glamour division.<\/p>\n

A matchup against the sanctioning body’s interim champion Joseph Parker<\/a> (36-3, 24 KOs) is naturally of interest, especially knowing that bout could very well be for a vacant title should Usyk again decide to relinquish one – or more – of the belts he holds after requesting an extension to his mandated title defence<\/a> with an undisclosed injury earlier this week.
He named another unbeaten contender in WBC interim beltholder Agit Kabayel<\/a> (26-0, 18 KOs) as an option during a flash post-fight interview with BBC, again insisting he didn’t “deserve the opportunity” right now for a shot at Usyk’s crown.
During the build-up to their Saudi headliner, Itauma’s manager Francis Warren named Otto Wallin<\/a>, Zhilei Zhang<\/a> and David Adeleye’s latest conqueror Filip Hrgovic<\/a>, as a trio of names the team would be looking at over the next year before stepping up to the very top players.
Sweden’s Wallin (27-3, 15 KOs) has alternated wins and losses in his last four and all three defeats have come against British opposition: Tyson Fury<\/a>, Anthony Joshua<\/a> and most recently, Derek Chisora on February 8<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Former WBO interim champion Zhang (27-3-1, 22 KOs) is 3-3 in his last six appearances, which include defeats by Parker and more recently Kabayel – having floored both men – though at 42, the towering southpaw is declining. <\/p>\n

Hrgovic, who inflicted Zhang’s first defeat three years ago this month, saw his own invincibility cloak disappear<\/a> as Daniel Dubois weathered an early storm to force a doctor stoppage eight rounds into their IBF interim title bout last June.
The Croatian openly warned Itauma’s handlers against<\/a> matching him too quickly given his inexperience and while a fair sentiment, the youngster has since garnered favourable top-10 rankings ‘El Animal’ would happily look to seize.<\/p>\n

Parker’s head coach Andy Lee joked there wasn’t much to scout when asked whether he was looking at potential holes or gaps from Itauma to exploit.<\/p>\n

In his analyst role on the DAZN broadcast, he said: “All you can do is take your hat off and say well done on a phenomenal performance. From the start, it wasn’t easy for him, waiting a long time and he could’ve been caught cold or had a few doubts in the mind but he handled it perfectly and did his job.”<\/p>\n

“Whyte was looking to ride it out [a first-round storm] but just never recovered from the first punch and you’ll see from the beginning, it’s because of the feints.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

On what’s next for Parker, he was predictably bullish about the Kiwi maintaining a willingness to fight anyone – provided it made sense for his career – if Usyk wasn’t next. <\/p>\n

“Joe has shown and history shows, he’ll fight anybody. He wouldn’t say no to Moses, if the [WBO] title was on the line, you could easily see Parker-Itauma for a vacant title.”<\/p>\n

With Queensberry chief Frank Warren alongside him at this stage, the Irishman was asked what he would do if he was in charge of masterminding Moses’ next steps. <\/p>\n

“He’s so young and talented but going through these guys like a knife through butter. Once you step up to that level, you open a door you can’t return from. It’s not like he’s not ready for it but for a fighter’s development, maybe you should stay below that. I’ve always said Itauma dictates the pace you move [him] at, he has all the talent in the world. <\/p>\n

Maybe a little more experience but it’s about the risk-reward for him isn’t it? Heavyweights are different, usually losses are by knockout and sometimes a young fighter might not come back the same. One bad mistake and move can cost you your career – it’s a risky game – but no-one is better at building and guiding fighters than Frank, so he’s in good hands.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Such is the relentless pursuit of the next breaking news story to analyse, Moses Itauma didn’t even have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[33002,64,63,802,17733,17735,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-75236","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-andy-lee","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-boxing","12":"tag-dillian-whyte","13":"tag-moses-itauma","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75236","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=75236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}