{"id":80340,"date":"2025-08-20T14:31:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T14:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/80340\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T14:31:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T14:31:06","slug":"moses-itauma-ricky-hatton-urges-team-itauma-to-hold-fire-for-oleksandr-usyk-fight-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/80340\/","title":{"rendered":"Moses Itauma: Ricky Hatton urges Team Itauma to “hold fire” for Oleksandr Usyk fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ricky Hatton says Moses Itauma is a “brilliant” heavyweight but urged his team not to push for a fight with Oleksandr Usyk next.<\/p>\n

Itauma’s quick knockout of Dillian Whyte<\/a> last Saturday ramped up speculation the 20-year-old could be ready for a world title shot.<\/p>\n

Hatton, a multiple-weight world champion, heaped praise on Itauma, but called for caution as the Briton continues to build his career.<\/p>\n

“I think they might have stepped him up a bit too quick,” Hatton told BBC Sport.<\/p>\n

“It was a very experienced performance, way beyond his years.<\/p>\n

“They’re talking about Usyk next, woah, let’s just hold fire there just a little bit.<\/p>\n

“Usyk will only have a couple [more fights]. If you look at the heavyweights coming through, it’s wide open for Itauma and I think he can clear up.”<\/p>\n

Usyk, 37, holds all four of the major world titles<\/a> but could be forced to vacate his WBO belt if he doesn’t fight mandatory challenger Joseph Parker next.<\/p>\n

The Ukrainian’s team have told the WBO he is recovering from an injury and requested an extension to the 24 July deadline to reach terms with Parker.<\/p>\n

With just 13 fights and 26 rounds under Itauma’s belt, Hatton suggested the domestic route was better for a developing boxer.<\/p>\n

“Fabio Wardley or Frazer Clarke, which are good domestic fights,” Hatton suggested as potential opponents.<\/p>\n

“Fighting domestic fights to get your fanbase rising. He has got his fanbase rising all the time, but I think that’s what I’d do.<\/p>\n

“Hold fire with Usyk because he’s going to get even better, so why fight him now? Get a bit better and then fight him.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ricky Hatton says Moses Itauma is a “brilliant” heavyweight but urged his team not to push for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-80340","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80340","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=80340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}