{"id":60553,"date":"2025-08-11T03:33:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T03:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/60553\/"},"modified":"2025-08-11T03:33:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T03:33:07","slug":"moses-itauma-hopes-to-follow-floyd-mayweathers-path-not-focused-on-oleksandr-usyk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/60553\/","title":{"rendered":"Moses Itauma Hopes To Follow Floyd Mayweather\u2019s Path; Not Focused On Oleksandr Usyk"},"content":{"rendered":"

Perhaps no boxer left a better blueprint for how to navigate their career better than Floyd Mayweather Jr.<\/a>, a five-division champion, 2021 International Boxing Hall of Famer and box-office gold mine.
Rapidly ascending heavyweight contender Moses Itauma<\/a> hopes he can say that he followed the same path as Mayweather (50-0, 27 KOs), ahead of his fight against Dillian Whyte<\/a> on Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on DAZN PPV<\/a>.
\u201cHe made a lot of money in this sport, came out with his brains intact, no damage and whatnot and nobody can say, ‘Yeah, I [beat] him up,\u201d Itauma told The Ring\u2019s Louis Hart.<\/a> \u201cThat\u2019s the career that I want. When people are insecure about themselves, they put a little doubt, a little bit of pressure on someone, hoping that they\u2019re going to break because it makes them feel better.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Floyd Mayweather, he was such a good fighter. [He was] 50-0, people are insecure about that. People don\u2019t want to accept that reality, so they put a bit of doubt and pressure on Floyd Mayweather to get him to crack just so they can feel better. I don\u2019t look at it from that perspective. I look at it like, ‘Wow, he\u2019s achieved a lot.'”<\/p>\n

Itauma (12-0, 10 KOs) has quickly asserted himself as one of boxing\u2019s best heavyweight prospects in recent memory with his dynamic speed, skill and power and can take a significant step in his development with a win over Whyte. The 20-year-old has won eight consecutive fights by stoppage, all of which have come inside the first two rounds.<\/p>\n

Whyte (31-3, 21 KOs), though, is by far the most significant test of Itauma\u2019s career<\/a>. He has fought for the heavyweight title and has shared the ring with some of the better heavyweights in the world when he fought them before his sixth-round stoppage loss to Tyson Fury in April 2022. Whyte has won three straight fights since that defeat, though, the level of competition was subpar.<\/p>\n

In his last fight, Whyte, 37, stopped Ebenezer Tetteh after the seventh round on Dec. 15.<\/p>\n

Itauma, who is a 6-foot-4 1\/2 southpaw and is ranked No. 1 (WBO), No. 2 (WBA), No. 6 (IBF) and No. 11 (WBC), could be in a position for a world title shot with an impressive win Saturday.<\/a> That title shot, if it came to fruition in the near future, could come against undisputed heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk (24-0, 15 KOs).
His Excellency Turki Alalshikh hasn\u2019t been bashful about his intentions to make Usyk vs. Itauma <\/a>should he get past Whyte. For Itauma, though, a chance to face the best heavyweight of this generation for all of the belts is the last thing on his mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not thinking about it,\u201d Itauma said. \u201cI\u2019m not [thinking], ‘I wish that could happen’ because right now, I\u2019ve got a serious contender like Dillian Whyte in front of me, but after, maybe.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Perhaps no boxer left a better blueprint for how to navigate their career better than Floyd Mayweather Jr.,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60554,"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-60553","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\/60553","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=60553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}