{"id":42498,"date":"2025-08-03T16:13:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T16:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/42498\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T16:13:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T16:13:09","slug":"richard-torrez-open-to-pond-hop-eyes-uk-fights-with-moses-itauma-fabio-wardley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/42498\/","title":{"rendered":"Richard Torrez open to ‘pond hop,’ eyes UK fights with Moses Itauma, Fabio Wardley"},"content":{"rendered":"

Olympic silver medallist Richard Torrez Jr<\/a> is only three years and 13 bouts into his professional career, but the Californian southpaw already has his sights set on prospective matchups against Queensberry duo Moses Itauma<\/a> and Fabio Wardley<\/a> across the pond.
Itauma (12-0, 10 KOs) faces a career-best challenge when facing former two-time WBC interim champion Dillian Whyte<\/a> (31-3, 21 KOs) on Aug. 16 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as the headliner of an event to be streamed live on DAZN PPV<\/a>.
Torrez (13-0, 11 KOs) is almost four months removed from his 10-round points win over Guido Vianello<\/a>, having gone the distance for the first time as a pro. While accepting there are wrinkles he needs to continue improving upon \u2014 notably movement, control and composure \u2014 there’s tempered excitement about him at a time where his country are in desperate need of a heavyweight superstar.
He was the latest to suggest timing would help make a potential matchup between undisputed king Oleksandr Usyk<\/a> and Itauma “an even bigger fight,” while also throwing his name in the hat for bouts against both.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Sean Zittel, the 26-year-old said: “Give him [Itauma] more time to develop and it’s a bigger fight. I know Usyk’s on his way out, might be saying that because I want the fight, to be able to be there, I heard my name was in talks too, I want to fight both of them. I’m thinking, ‘Don’t do that, fight me instead,’ either of them. <\/p>\n

“I see his [Itauma] name out there and his capabilities, he’s a great, fast young fighter and it’d be crazy to pond hop and be able to have a big fight, USA against some of those guys.<\/p>\n

“My fingers are crossed for that because there are some really big fights, potentials for the heavyweight division right now. A bunch of up-and-coming guys right now that people wanna see fight. USA vs. a couple of the England guys, people wanna see that.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

“Fabio Wardley, Itauma, any of the guys in the top 10. [Agit] Kabayel would be action-packed between two pressure fighters, there are so many fights [to be made] and I’m super excited, ready for it because I want the competition.”<\/p>\n

Wardley, who produced a come-from-behind stoppage win over Justis Huni on June 7<\/a>, is the WBA’s interim champion. He was originally slated to face Jarrell Miller, before the New York native withdrew with a training injury the month prior.
Itauma, who blasted beyond former American football pro Mike Balogun in two rounds<\/a>, has previously been linked with Torrez’s more seasoned compatriots Jermaine Franklin and one-time IBF titleholder Charles Martin.<\/p>\n

Torrez is ranked No. 8 with the IBF and No. 9 by WBC, so it goes without saying that he’d need at least one or two marquee victories over top-rated contenders before boosting himself in the rankings.<\/p>\n

The Top Rank-backed talent finds himself in a difficult position given his lofty ambitions, as matchmakers will be mindful about thrusting him among the world’s elite prematurely \u2014 a la Jared Anderson \u2014 while comments like these naturally grab attention.<\/p>\n

He doesn’t begrudge Anderson (18-1, 15 KOs) falling short on the world stage, as he experienced previously during an extensive amateur stint that included defeats by Huni, WBA’s No. 13-ranked Dainier Pero and Olympic champion Bakhodir Jalolov<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now that’s in the rearview mirror, and while there’s uncertainty surrounding Top Rank’s next move with a broadcast partner, Torrez isn’t focused on the outside noise.<\/p>\n

More purposeful activity and incremental improvements in opposition quality, as has been the case, will see his name circulate further to a point where he’s not angling to be among the crop, but firmly entrenched as part of the division’s best.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Olympic silver medallist Richard Torrez Jr is only three years and 13 bouts into his professional career, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42499,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,1151,1144,1150,1149,1142,711,1145,1146,1147,1148,1143,49,48,1156,1155,1138,1136,1137,1153,1139,1135,1157,1152,82,1154,1134,1141,1140],"class_list":["post-42498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-community","tag-boxing-fights","tag-boxing-history","tag-boxing-interviews","tag-boxing-magazine","tag-boxing-news","tag-boxing-photos","tag-boxing-rankings","tag-boxing-results","tag-boxing-schedule","tag-boxing-videos","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-disqualification","tag-draw","tag-fight","tag-fighter","tag-fighter-news","tag-knockout","tag-latest-boxing-matches","tag-ring","tag-ring-magazine","tag-split-decision","tag-sports","tag-technical-knockout","tag-the-ring","tag-top-fighters","tag-upcoming-boxing-matches"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}