{"id":250750,"date":"2025-11-08T06:35:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T06:35:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/250750\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T06:35:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T06:35:16","slug":"lennox-lewis-shares-his-honest-opinion-on-whether-moses-itauma-is-now-ready-for-oleksandr-usyk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/250750\/","title":{"rendered":"Lennox Lewis shares his honest opinion on whether Moses Itauma is now ready for Oleksandr Usyk"},"content":{"rendered":"

Should Moses Itauma<\/a> pursue a fight with undisputed heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk<\/a> now \u2014 or wait until the Ukrainian retires?<\/p>\n

It was an unthinkable question at the start of 2025, when the unbeaten Itauma was just 11 fights into his career and coming off an eye-catching first-round win over former Filip Hrgovic opponent Demsey McKean.<\/p>\n

Fast forward 11 months and Itauma is now 13-0 (11 KOs), the WBA\u2019s number one contender, and in August he dispatched former world title challenger Dillian Whyte in less than three minutes<\/a>. At just 20 years old, the Slovakian-born Brit has the world at his feet.<\/p>\n

Some observers believe he\u2019s already ready for someone of Usyk\u2019s elite calibre<\/a>, while others urge caution. Among them is all-time great Lennox Lewis<\/a>, the former undisputed heavyweight champion, who shared his advice with Sky Sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWay too soon. It\u2019s better to wait. Wait until he retires. He\u2019s not going to stay around too long. I\u2019m talking Oleksandr Usyk, and then take your shot. There\u2019s no use doing it right now.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now you\u2019re learning \u2013\u2013 you\u2019re learning everything and you have to wait until the right time. You can never be rushed. If you rush you\u2019re going to do a bad result for your career. So it\u2019s better to take your time and take it when it\u2019s there, when it\u2019s ready, when you\u2019re ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

Usyk, 38, is expected to return in 2026, with Itauma\u2019s gym-mate Fabio Wardley a potential opponent after his recent victory over Joseph Parker in their titanic tussle earlier this month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Should Moses Itauma pursue a fight with undisputed heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk now \u2014 or wait until the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-250750","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}