{"id":680798,"date":"2026-07-08T17:49:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T17:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/680798\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T17:49:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T17:49:12","slug":"moses-itauma-delivers-honest-verdict-on-usyk-vs-deontay-wilder-hes-not-ready-to-leave-the-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/680798\/","title":{"rendered":"Moses Itauma delivers honest verdict on Usyk vs Deontay Wilder: “He’s not ready to leave the game”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Moses Itauma<\/a> has made his thoughts perfectly clear on the proposed Oleksandr Usyk<\/a> vs Deontay Wilder<\/a> showdown.<\/p>\n

After Usyk chose to vacate his WBC, WBA and IBF world heavyweight titles last month<\/a>, it has emerged that a clash against former world champion Wilder appears to be the frontrunner for the Ukrainian\u2019s next fight, which he has dubbed as \u2018his last dance.\u2019<\/p>\n

Usyk and Wilder were linked to a fight against one another late last year, before they each went in separate directions, with Wilder claiming a points win over Derek Chisora<\/a>, and Usyk earning a controversial stoppage victory against Rico Verhoeven.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, it appears that Usyk and Wilder are now on course to meet next, but it seems that not everybody is impressed at that prospect, after fellow heavyweight star Itauma told IFL TV<\/a> that the bout doesn\u2019t do much for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe doesn\u2019t need to do that. Who the hell would want to watch that? Fair enough he\u2019s achieved more than I have, so I can\u2019t say anything. He wants the paper.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the criticism, Itauma admitted that he understands why Usyk would choose to do it.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to remember, when Usyk was a cruiserweight and even the early stages of the heavyweight fights, he wasn\u2019t making as much money as he\u2019s raking it in his last couple years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI ain\u2019t pocket-watching or anything, but the last two to three years of his career he\u2019s probably earned such a huge amount that he\u2019s probably not ready to leave the game. I don\u2019t blame him.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for Itauma himself, he will look to move a step closer to a world heavyweight title shot when he takes on Filip Hrgovic at The O2 Arena on August 29.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Moses Itauma has made his thoughts perfectly clear on the proposed Oleksandr Usyk vs Deontay Wilder showdown. After…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":680799,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-680798","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\/680798","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=680798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/680799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}