Moses Itauma: A Million Times Better Than Joshua and Fury
Prince Naseem Hamed has never been shy with an opinion. Even by his standards, though, this one lands like a left hook.
Moses Itauma, he insists, is “a million times better” than Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury. Not just a future champion. Not just the next big thing. Better than the two men who dragged British heavyweight boxing into a global era and held its richest prizes.
On Saturday night at London’s O2 Arena, we start to find out how bold that claim really is.
A prodigy on the brink
Itauma is only 21. Fourteen fights, fourteen wins, not a blemish on his professional record. Now he walks into a vacant IBF heavyweight title fight against Croatia’s Filip Hrgovic, a seasoned, scarred contender with an Olympic bronze medal and only one defeat in 21 bouts.
It is a huge leap. It is also exactly the sort of leap Hamed recognises.
The Chatham heavyweight has long been talked about as the heir to the throne at a time when Joshua and Fury, at last, have agreed terms for their long-awaited all-British showdown later this year. One generation finally meeting in the ring, another banging on the door.
For Hamed, there is no comparison.
“Moses is on another level to the likes of Tyson Fury and Tyson would say that himself. Tyson would not want to fight Moses and neither would Joshua,” he told BBC Sport. “If they did I would say they are very brave.”
The words are loaded. Hamed knows exactly what he’s doing.
Chasing Tyson, overtaking Joshua
Strip away the noise and the numbers are stark. If Itauma beats Hrgovic, he becomes the second-youngest heavyweight world champion in history, behind only Mike Tyson.
He will miss Hamed’s own British age record by just 14 days. Back in 1995, the Sheffield showman became Britain’s youngest world champion at 21 years and 230 days when he dethroned Steve Robinson for the WBO featherweight title in Cardiff.
Itauma cannot touch that mark now. But he can eclipse Joshua’s path. Joshua won his first world title in his 16th professional bout. Itauma is trying to do it in his 15th.
The landscape he is walking into is very different. Fury, twice beaten by Oleksandr Usyk, sits with two losses on his ledger. Joshua, once the golden boy, has four defeats in 34 fights and has had to rebuild his career more than once. The aura of invincibility around British heavyweights has cracked.
Hamed, 52, is not blind to what they achieved.
“I think Tyson Fury was amazing for British boxing and what he achieved, what he did and brought to the game and how colourful he was as a personality,” he said. “I think Joshua did an amazing job early in his career to win a world title and be an ambassador for British boxing.
“[But] I can't compare Moses. He is a million times better than them.”
That line will echo around gyms and dressing rooms for months.
A believer in another special 21-year-old
Hamed sees something of his own story in Itauma. Not in style – Naseem was a whirling, switch-hitting featherweight showman, Itauma a cold-eyed heavyweight southpaw – but in conviction.
“Winning a national title as an amateur aged 11 and then having in your head all the way through your amateur career that you'll be world champion at 21 – I visualised that. I think it's very much the same for Moses,” he said.
He talks about Itauma as a “special fighter”, a phrase he does not use lightly. Records, he insists, are secondary. Fulfilment of potential is the real prize.
“I’m so confident that Moses is going to be the heavyweight champion of the world. I’m so confident that he’ll defend that belt for as long as he wants.”
Those are not cautious predictions. They are declarations.
The danger in the other corner
Hrgovic, though, is no carefully chosen stepping stone. On paper, he is the more proven heavyweight. Thirty-four years old, an Olympic bronze medallist, tested against better opposition than Itauma has yet faced, with only a single defeat – to current WBO world champion Daniel Dubois in 2024.
He comes in as the underdog, but only because of the hype swirling around the younger man. In a different era, the roles might be reversed.
Hamed is unmoved.
“On paper it's a test but I don't think the night that we watch it it will be a test,” he said. “I think it's going to be one of Moses' easiest nights of his career and he'll win a world title.”
That is the scale of the expectation now resting on Itauma’s shoulders. Beat Hrgovic, and he doesn’t just win a belt. He steps into a division in which Fury and Joshua are still circling, Usyk still looms large, and every punch is thrown under a harsher light.
Hamed has thrown down his own gauntlet. On Saturday, under the O2 lights, we find out whether Moses Itauma is simply another talented young heavyweight – or the man who really forces Joshua and Fury to look over their shoulders.
