SMASH HIT!
Meet ‘the new AJ’ who is out to break Iron Mike’s record of being the youngest world champion. MOSES ITAUMA could be British boxing’s next...
Teen sensation Moses Itauma was not exactly bitten by the boxing bug from the start. ‘I hated it when I first tried it,’ he says. ‘I really hated it. I threw up after my first four sessions. I thought, “Scrap this”.’
The rapidly rising star of the heavyweight division vision doesn’t hate boxing any more. ore. Itauma, from Chatham, Kent, nt, is being billed as the next Anthony Joshua and has pledged ged to take Mike Tyson’s record by becoming the youngest world champion on in the division’s history. ry.
And don’t bet t against him doing it. Itauma, auma, 19, signalled his arrival rival on the heavyweight scene with a thunderous debut, sending ding Czech Marcel Bode crashing crashvas to the canvas after just 23 seconds in London last year.
But it wasn’t t love at first punch when en he was dragged to the gym by his brother Karol. arol. ‘I hated it, I wanted to play y football,’ Itauma explains when he sits down with Mail Sport in his is local gym. ‘Then when I was playing aying football, I found I got really lly bored with it. I didn’t enjoy spending pending my time just running after ter a ball.
‘So, I went back ck into boxing. But training was tough. ugh. especially as a nine-year- old. They used to put you through your ur paces and andnd I just didn’t like it. But ut it made me the man I am today.’
One thing Itauma did enjoy was the freedom boxing gave him. Having grown up under the watchful eye of his nigerian father and Slovakian mother, Itauma says it was nice to be able to ‘f*** around’.
‘I liked going down to the gym because the boys were there,’ says Itauma
— who was born in Slovakia but moved to england aged two. ‘We used to turn n up to training two hours s before we were due to start t because we could just f*** * around. It was better than n being at home.
‘ everybody knows s nigerian parents are strict. .
My dad has always been n very strict, so anything to o get out of the house.
‘Plus, my parents never r wanted me to get into o boxing. My dad was always s into book work, like most t nigerian parents. When we first started boxing, my dad d would be like, “no, you’re not going boxing until you finish your book work”. I guess he wanted me to be a doctor or something. But I don’t blame him. I wouldn’t want my kids to be boxers either.’
Itauma — who speaks with the confidence of a seasoned pro — and his brother attended the Greenacre Academy in Chatham but focused more on their sporting endeavours than academia, landing themselves in trouble for fighting in the playground.
But, Itauma says, he was just standing up to bullies who were picking i ki on kid kids h half lf th their i size. i ‘Until about year eight, I was on the straight and narrow but after that I just didn’t take it seriously. I messed around a lot, had a few fights and got into a bit of trouble. But I was never bad. The teachers loved me.
‘I always bullied the bullies. Me and my enforcer, Tyrone, if we saw any bullying going on, we would do our best to stop it. We would go up to them and start picking on the bullies. Obviously I was a massive kid, so I was able to do that.’
Despite towering over the other boys b at t 6ft 4in 4i and d weighing i hi 17 stone by the age of 14, Itauma had his own issues with exclusion. ‘normally in the european squads, there are a lot of travellers. I wouldn’t say I got bullied, but I didn’t necessarily fit in. Instead of them welcoming me in, they kicked me out.
‘ So, when I was in school, I wanted to be the person who would bring people together rather than tear them apart.’
It wasn’t long before Itauma committed to boxing full-time and set his sights on beating Tyson’s much-vaunted record. And, with just over 16 months to achieve that goal, Itauma has made some tough decisions. He hasn’t celebrated a birthday since he was 14 and has narrowed his friendship group down to just one member, Tyrone. He’s spent hours shadow boxing in his room and caught up on sleep in his science lessons between training before and after school. But the hard work appears to have paid off, with former world cruiserweight champion Lawrence Okolie still claiming Itauma gave him the hardest spar of his career — when he was just 15.
‘That was a mad experience,’ Itauma recalls. ‘After sparring Lawrence, he wrote me a whole paragraph telling me how he thought I was going to be great. I never believed him, but I guess I’m here now.’
Okolie isn’t the only big name Itauma has sparred with. He arrived to train with Joe Joyce, Daniel Dubois and Joshua in his school uniform. ‘I was doing my exams and my coach texted me saying I wouldn’t have enough time to go home to get changed before sparring so I had to bring my boxing stuff with me. My coach picked me up from school right after my science exam, we went straight to Joyce’s gym and I did six, seven rounds.’
Itauma’s childhood was anything but conventional. He traded in his carefree days for rigorous training sessions and disciplined nutrition. But the sacrifices, though daunting at first, have become an everyday part of his life and he wouldn’t change it.
‘It was a little bit isolating when I was younger,’ he admits. ‘And I can’t exactly go to the pub and drink a load of pints now with the lads. But if you’re making a better future for yourself, I don’t feel like you’re missing out.
‘I’d rather miss out on a few parties when I was a teenager and have big parties with celebrities when I’m older. I just know that I’m building a bigger and better future for myself and my family.’
The question is, will those sacrifices be enough for Itauma to break Tyson’s record and become the youngest world champion in
history? The teenager believes so. ‘I think I can do it,’ he says. ‘It was a lot more doable in Tyson’s era because you never really had the promoters and the mandatory bouts. Even if I don’t, at least I’ll be up there in those conversations.
‘I want to go into this year full steam ahead and become the youngest world heavyweight champion but if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t. I’m not going to cry about it. It’s a goal, but sometimes you don’t achieve your goals, so you just move on to the next one.’
One thing Itauma is certain about is the level of opponent he wants to face in 2024, despite being told ‘there is no such thing as bums in boxing’ by Iron Mike while in Saudi Arabia fighting on the Tyson Fury v Francis Ngannou undercard in October.
‘ There are bums in boxing,’ Itauma insists. ‘Just look at who I was fighting on my sixth fight compared to who Tyson was fighting on his sixth fight. There is a very big difference. For my sixth fight, I boxed someone who had won 10 and lost one. He boxed someone who had lost six and won two.
‘I guess he just wants to defend his own career. I’ve got a lot of respect for Tyson. He’s achieved what I want to achieve. I never really looked up to him but I can appreciate him because he was a killer. He trained hard and he’s very smart. I listened to a lot of things he said and I want to take them on board but some things you have to filter out.’
One man Itauma will listen to is Joshua. He admires the two-time heavyweight champion, viewing him as both a role model and a measuring stick. ‘I respect AJ. I’ve learned from him and he’s one of the fighters I used to watch growing up. Not so much in the ring, but outside of the ring.
‘Before I turned pro, I spoke to him, he probably won’t remember. We sat down and we spoke for 30 minutes to an hour about what the best move would be for my career. And I do really appreciate him a lot. But he only started boxing at 18 and look what I was already doing at 18.
‘I’m already a two-time national champion, a three-time European and world gold medalist. Then I signed with Frank Warren and I’ve already got seven fights under my belt in my first year. So, by the time I am his age (34), I want to be done and dealt with.’
But when Itauma does quit at the peak of his powers, what does he want people to remember?
‘I want people to look back and say, “Wow! I lived through his era. I got to watch those fights”. I always want to be in big fights and I always want to step up. People like Mike Tyson had a lot of fights with low quality, I want fewer fights but with higher quality.’
Moses Itauma’s journey promises to be a captivating one. Whether he emerges as the next AJ or forges a unique legacy of his own remains to be seen. One thing is certain — the boxing world will be watching with anticipation.