An undated picture of British boxer Fabio Wardley. — Reuters
Moses Itauma’s promoter, Frank Warren and sanctioning body WBO are looking for a title fight between the former and Fabio Wardley, but the heavyweight champion dismissed the idea by saying he wants even bigger fights.
Britain’s rising heavyweight Itauma delivered the biggest performance of his career, scoring a fifth-round knockout against the never-before-stopped Jermain Franklin at Manchester’s Co-op Live Arena on Saturday.
He was oozing with confidence at the post-fight press conference following the match.
Itauma hardly celebrated the win and was waved off, not because Franklin still lay flat on the floor, but because he was confident enough that he could do something both Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte could not.
Itauma became the WBO’s No.1 contender even before the Franklin victory, and the sanctioning body’s president, Gustavo Olivieri, said just after the fight, “he has further affirmed his standing within the division as a rising star.”
“I will recommend to the championship committee that Itauma be designated as the mandatory challenger in the WBO heavyweight division.”
Oliveiri’s stance proves Warren’s recent comments prescient. “I’m pretty confident [Itauma] will fight for the world title this year,” he said after his boxer’s latest win. “Very confident.”
However, the WBO champion himself wants big fights like Oleksandr Usyk, Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua.
“There’s two of us and there’s four belts,” Wardley said of the prospect of fighting Moses Itauma.
“There’s a lot to go around, there’s a lot of fighters in between, and we’re in different places.
“I’m looking up in terms of [Oleksandr] Usyk, [Tyson] Fury, and AJ [Anthony Joshua]. Those type of guys. But Moses is looking for a fight between that, like [Filip] Hrgovic — a fantastic fight for him.”