{"id":749189,"date":"2026-08-25T11:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T11:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/749189\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T11:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T11:38:08","slug":"billy-joe-saunders-picks-a-winner-in-usyk-vs-moses-itauma-i-dont-give-anyone-a-chance-against-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/749189\/","title":{"rendered":"Billy Joe Saunders picks a winner in Usyk vs Moses Itauma: “I don’t give anyone a chance against him”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Billy Joe Saunders<\/a> is against seeing a heavyweight clash between Oleksandr Usyk<\/a> and Moses Itauma<\/a>, purely for the reason that he feels one man would be at a sizable disadvantage.<\/p>\n

Before anything else, Itauma must first complete his assignment against Filip Hrgovic, who he faces this Saturday for the vacant IBF title.<\/a><\/p>\n

If he emerges victorious, the 21-year-old will become the youngest world heavyweight champion since Mike Tyson dethroned Trevor Berbick<\/a> with a second-round finish in 1986.<\/p>\n

The talented prodigy would then be ordered to face mandatory challenger Frank Sanchez, who has agreed to a step-aside fee with Queensberry promoter Frank Warren.<\/p>\n

Usyk, meanwhile, is closing in on retirement after producing a subpar performance against Rico Verhoeven<\/a>, who he ultimately stopped in round 11 of their encounter last May.<\/p>\n

The 39-year-old has, of course, guaranteed his place in the Hall of Fame and, having become a two-division undisputed champion, there is virtually nothing left for him to achieve in the sport.<\/p>\n

As a result, Usyk has outlined his ambition to enter one last fight, acknowledging that he is approaching the final chapter of his illustrious career.<\/p>\n

Former two-weight world champion Saunders has therefore told talkSPORT<\/a> that a showdown between Usyk and Itauma is no longer appealing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t give any heavyweight at the moment a chance against him [Itauma]\u2026<\/p>\n

I wouldn\u2019t like to see that fight \u2013 not now. I would\u2019ve liked to have seen it two or three years ago, but it never would\u2019ve happened.<\/p>\n

Everybody has that sell-by date, and I think [Usyk\u2019s] just trying to stay [in boxing] because of the money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saunders added that, based on Usyk\u2019s last performance, he would confidently back an Itauma victory over the ageing Ukrainian.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Billy Joe Saunders is against seeing a heavyweight clash between Oleksandr Usyk and Moses Itauma, purely for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":749190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-749189","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\/749189","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=749189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/749190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=749189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=749189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=749189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}