Itauma laments not beating Mike Tyson\u2019s record<\/a>, but he could still one-up Muhammad Ali<\/a>, George Foreman<\/a>, and a host of other heavyweights with a dominant world title win.<\/p>\n In his way is \u2018The Bodysnatcher\u2019, who, despite being ruled out by many, has come in fighting shape and is determined to cause the upset against the rising phenom.<\/p>\n A win over Whyte puts Itauma<\/a> in good standing to face Joseph Parker<\/a> for a world title in his very next fight, provided Oleksandr Usyk relinquishes the WBO belt.<\/p>\n Parker\u2019s coach, Andy Lee, detailed a spar between Itauma and Parker that happened well before their names were ever in the same sentence.<\/p>\n In late 2023\/early 2024, Parker was preparing to follow up his big win over Deontay Wilder<\/a> with a win over \u2018Big Bang\u2019 Zhilei Zhang<\/a>.<\/p>\n He got his win, despite being dropped twice, and continued his fairytale career resurgence. <\/p>\n The win, though, was in part the result of some brutal spars the Kiwi shared with the emerging talent in Itauma.<\/p>\n Lee details the spars, stating, \u201cThey were tough spars. Tough\u2026 They went to war basically, for four rounds. Four rounds Moses was in were a war.\u201d<\/p>\n The landscape of boxing is ever changing, and in a bizarre turn of events, Itauma could defeat one of the only men to hand Parker a loss in Whyte this Saturday.<\/p>\n The former sparring partners could then become enemies, as Itauma\u2019s number one WBO status could mean a fight with Parker next.<\/p>\n He must first get past \u2018The Bodysnatcher\u2019 though, which is not a sure thing, especially with Whyte\u2019s dramatic weight loss<\/a>.<\/p>\n Moses Itauma could ruin Joseph Parker\u2019s fairytale career<\/p>\n With Daniel Dubois now trying and failing twice to defeat Usyk, most recently for his undisputed titles, Joseph Parker is surely next in line, with many believing he\u2019s more than earned his shot after wins over Wilder, Zhang, and Martin Bakole<\/a>.<\/p>\n Parker\u2019s career has seen a fairytale resurgence since he joined forces with Andy Lee, and he is now a far cry from the man who lost to Dillian Whyte, Anthony Joshua<\/a>, and Joe Joyce<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ahead of his fight with Whyte, it\u2019s worth comparing Itauma and Parker to see just how much of a chance either man has against the other.<\/p>\n Moses ItaumaJoseph ParkerRecord12-036-3Best winDemsey McKeanZhilei Zhang\/Deontay WilderHeight & reach6\u20194.5\u2033 & 79\u20336\u20194\u2033 & 76\u2033Weight in last fight254lbs267lbsAge2033<\/p>\n The New Zealander holds the WBO interim title, though his success could all come crashing down if Itauma is truly as good as he is touted to be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Moses Itauma is just a few steps away from greatness as he takes his first big step-up against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,18892,9254,16171,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-70284","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-dillian-whyte","10":"tag-joseph-parker","11":"tag-moses-itauma","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70284","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=70284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Dillian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-2230155241-1024x731.jpg\")
Photo by Richard Pelham\/Getty ImagesMoses Itauma and Joseph Parker went to war in slugfest sparring sessions<\/p>\n