{"id":690074,"date":"2026-07-13T22:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T22:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/690074\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T22:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T22:34:10","slug":"moses-itauma-urged-to-avoid-new-world-champion-and-choose-alternative-route-after-brutal-ko","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/690074\/","title":{"rendered":"Moses Itauma urged to avoid new world champion and choose alternative route after brutal KO"},"content":{"rendered":"

Johnny Nelson believes Moses Itauma should steer his pursuit of a world title away from Murat Gassiev.<\/p>\n

Itauma is almost guaranteed a world title shot if he beats Filip Hrgovic<\/a> in the biggest test of his career on August 29.<\/p>\n

\"MANCHESTER,<\/a><\/p>\n

1<\/p>\n

Itauma is on course for a title shot, but Nelson hopes he chooses to take on Sanchez<\/p>\n

The young British sensation has already been ordered to face IBF leading contender Frank Sanchez<\/a> for the vacant title if he wins, a bout that could be revisited later in the year.<\/p>\n

But he is also well ranked with the WBA and newly upgraded champion Murat Gassiev is open to the clash.<\/p>\n

Itauma could well receive the call for that title belt too, leaving him with a dilemma for the back end of 2026 and early in 2027.<\/p>\n

But former cruiserweight champion Johnny Nelson believes Itauma should choose Sanchez, and should steer away from the Russian.<\/p>\n

Read More In Boxing<\/p>\n

He said on the latest episode of talkSPORT Boxing: \u201cGassiev is a good fighter.<\/p>\n

“He boxed Oleksandr Usyk<\/a> and caused him problems. He is a clever guy. I wouldn\u2019t go there yet.<\/p>\n

“I would choose Sanchez.”<\/p>\n

Gassiev made a first defence of his title with a dominant stoppage win over Peter Kadiru.<\/p>\n

And having shared the ring but been beaten by Usyk in 2018, some are suggesting that he could be a realistic danger to Itauma.<\/p>\n

As for Itauma, talkSPORT’s Spencer Oliver added that the young Briton now has the world at his feet, and can only be halted by his own decisions.<\/p>\n

He added: “I think he’s the standout when you are looking at what we have in the division.<\/p>\n

“Moses Itauma<\/a> is head and shoulders above the rest of the prospects for sure.<\/p>\n

“But I think for Moses the only downfall could be himself. But he is very humble and very grounded.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think he is that character, he has his blinkers on and his ultimate goal is to win a world title.”<\/p>\n

Warren – Itauma won’t sit around, he’s ready<\/p>\n

For the 21-year-old, although time is on his side, handlers will not want to hold the frightening talent back from the upper echolons of the sport.<\/p>\n

A victory over Hrgovic will be his biggest statement yet and one to suggest he has a one-way ticket punched for the big time.<\/p>\n

Watch Boxing on DAZN<\/p>\n

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Promoter Frank Warren<\/a> is hugely excited for what comes next.<\/p>\n

He added: “He’s in with an Olympic medallist in Hrgovic, who’s got a wealth of experience.<\/p>\n

Read More on talkSPORT<\/p>\n

“If [Itauma] wins, world title fight. He’s No 1 now, he could sit it out and wait for it but we want to keep him busy and get experience and that’s what he wants.<\/p>\n

“I’d like that to happen, I’d like him to fight this year for it. We want to be able to get it done this year.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Johnny Nelson believes Moses Itauma should steer his pursuit of a world title away from Murat Gassiev. Itauma…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":690075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,6102,19527,16171,93473,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-690074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-frank-sanchez","tag-moses-itauma","tag-murat-gassiev","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690074","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=690074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/690075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=690074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=690074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=690074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}