{"id":789236,"date":"2026-07-09T13:11:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T13:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/789236\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T13:11:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T13:11:08","slug":"tony-bellew-delivers-new-verdict-on-whether-moses-itauma-is-now-ready-to-beat-usyk-wouldnt-go-near-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/789236\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Bellew delivers new verdict on whether Moses Itauma is now ready to beat Usyk: “Wouldn’t go near him”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oleksandr Usyk<\/a>\u2019s most recent performance has left fans wondering if he could be there for the taking, and now former Usyk opponent Tony Bellew<\/a> has shared his thoughts on whether Moses Itauma<\/a> should pursue a fight with the Ukrainian.<\/p>\n

Usyk suffered a close shave when he was shockingly pushed to the limit by Rico Verhoeven back in May<\/a>, despite the challenger having just one prior boxing fight to his name before providing Usyk his \u2018toughest fight\u2019 to date<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Since then, 39-year-old Usyk has opted to vacate all three of his heavyweight world titles, as he begins to wind his career down, with a clash against Deontay Wilder being suggested as his farewell fight<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If Usyk wishes to leave his mark on the next generation, he could accept a showdown with Itauma, who is being tipped to be both his successor and a long-reigning heavyweight ruler.<\/p>\n

Speaking on \u2018Fight Your Corner, in partnership with Midnite\u2019<\/a>, Bellew declared that Itauma, who will face Filip Hrgovic in August<\/a>, is not ready for a clash against the tactical mastermind due to the fact that he has never boxed beyond six rounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoses wouldn\u2019t go near him at the minute. I think that it would be absolutely insane to throw Moses Itauma into Usyk after not going past six [rounds] yet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWould you throw a fighter like that in with someone like him [Usyk]? His game plan would be, \u2018I have only got to see past six rounds with you, kid. I am going to take you to places that you have never been\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bellew then went on to pump the brakes on the Itauma hype train, reminding everyone that the 21-year-old is yet to beat an elite heavyweight in his 14-fight career.<\/p>\n

\u201c[His] best win is Jermaine Franklin. Jermaine Franklin is known for losing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat [building fighters up] is one thing that Frank [Warren] does well, nobody can knock that. He built a fighter really well, he generates the hype train to a point where there is no going back and that is where Moses is at now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Itauma could score a career best win when tasked with Hrgovic on Saturday, August 29, with victory over the Croatian expected to tee up either a WBA or IBF world title challenge<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oleksandr Usyk\u2019s most recent performance has left fans wondering if he could be there for the taking, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":789237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-789236","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\/789236","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=789236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/789237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=789236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=789236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=789236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}