{"id":820736,"date":"2026-11-01T12:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T12:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/820736\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T12:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T12:46:08","slug":"tony-bellew-says-moses-itauma-should-face-number-1-ranked-heavyweight-for-comeback-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/820736\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Bellew says Moses Itauma should face number 1 ranked heavyweight for comeback fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tony Bellew<\/a> has named the heavyweight who, while not posing much of a threat, could be capable of taking Moses Itauma into the later rounds.<\/p>\n

Prior to his last outing, against Filip Hrgovic<\/a>, Itauma\u2019s handlers were struggling to find a mid-tier opponent who could go longer than two rounds.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, they settled with Jermaine Franklin, who did show a level of durability before suffering an emphatic fifth-round stoppage defeat<\/a> in March.<\/p>\n

Then came what was considered a calculated risk against Hrgovic, who had reached the periphery of world-class but was widely expected to be too slow and cumbersome for Itauma.<\/p>\n

That much seemed to be the case for the first eight rounds, as the Croatian incurred an early knockdown and was generally getting outclassed.<\/p>\n

In round nine, though, Hrgovic scored a stunning stoppage over the exhausted 21-year-old<\/a> and claimed the vacant IBF world title in August.<\/p>\n

As a result, Itauma is expected to return against a more inferior opponent early next year, with former world champion Bellew telling Fight Your Corner<\/a> that he should collide with Jarrell \u2018Big Baby\u2019 Miller.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you know what would be a good comeback fight for Moses? Jarrell Miller. The worst thing you can do is throw that kid in and it\u2019s over in a round.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe boy needs rounds \u2026 and the best way to get him rounds is [against] Jarrell Miller. Jarrell Miller\u2019s not a puncher; he\u2019s never been a puncher. He\u2019s the heaviest punchbag I\u2019ve ever seen in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miller, who is currently ranked number one by the WBA behind full champion Murat Gassiev, comes off a unanimous decision victory over Lenier Pero in April, while having previously lost to Daniel Dubois and drawn with Andy Ruiz Jr.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tony Bellew has named the heavyweight who, while not posing much of a threat, could be capable of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":820737,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-820736","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\/820736","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=820736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/820737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=820736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=820736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=820736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}