{"id":666441,"date":"2026-06-30T17:35:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T17:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/666441\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T17:35:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T17:35:07","slug":"audley-harrison-delivers-honest-verdict-on-whether-moses-itauma-is-ready-for-a-world-title-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/666441\/","title":{"rendered":"Audley Harrison delivers honest verdict on whether Moses Itauma is ready for a world title fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Olympic gold medallist Audley Harrison believes Moses Itauma<\/a> is a \u201cgreat prospect\u201d, but questions whether the 21-year-old is genuinely ready to swim with sharks.<\/p>\n

Up to this point, Itauma has won every professional fight in dominant fashion, displaying signs of true world-class potential in each performance.<\/p>\n

There is no guarantee, however, that the Brit will dominate the world scene, especially while his most notable victory came against fringe contender Jermaine Franklin.<\/p>\n

Itauma secured a fifth-round finish over the typically durable American<\/a> in March, yet this does necessarily mean he will become a long-reigning world champion.<\/p>\n

His championship credentials should become more obvious on August 29, though, when the unbeaten knockout artist faces Filip Hrgovic<\/a> at London\u2019s O2 Arena.<\/p>\n

Having only lost to Daniel Dubois<\/a>, Hrgovic is widely regarded as a top 10 heavyweight, capable of testing whether Itauma has what it takes to compete with the very best.<\/p>\n

Should he emerge triumphant then Itauma, after just 15 professional outings, will be knocking on the door for a world title shot.<\/p>\n

In a discussion with Sky Sports<\/a>, though, former heavyweight operator Harrison suggested that such talk of Itauma challenging for world titles is premature.<\/p>\n

\u201c[He\u2019s a] great prospect, [I] love everything he\u2019s doing, but stop talking to me about world titles for Moses.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe needs to stay in the lab [gym]. Once you go up, you can\u2019t come back down. He\u2019s not ready for a 12-round war against the right kind of opponent; the right kind of opponent\u2019s going to give him the blues at that level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rightly or wrongly, Itauma is already a leading contender with both the WBO and WBA, while also boasting a No.4 ranking with the WBC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Olympic gold medallist Audley Harrison believes Moses Itauma is a \u201cgreat prospect\u201d, but questions whether the 21-year-old is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":666442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-666441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666441","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=666441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}