Roy Jones Jr believes Moses Itauma is the most “exhilarating heavyweight” since Mike Tyson, but he named one man who would perhaps derail his explosiveness.
Despite not having fought any top-level fighters, Itauma is widely regarded as a future world champion who can reign supreme for many years to come.
The 21-year-old easily scored his biggest win to date in March steamrolling the typically durable Jermaine Franklin in five rounds.
In this way, Itauma became a mandatory challenger to the winner of the Fabio Wardley vs. Daniel Dubois fight, which will take place on May 9 for Wardley’s WBO heavyweight world title.
However, at this point in his promising career, the precocious talent had yet to prove himself at a world-class level, and his only two notable victories were victories over the faded Dillian Whyte and the overmatched Demsey McKean.
Nevertheless, in both cases, in 2025 and 2024 respectively, Itauma finished in the first two rounds and showed his potential at the world level.
After passing the eye test, heavyweight legend Jones believes Itauma is capable of knocking out anyone in the heavyweight division except Alexander Usyk, who still holds the WBC, IBF and WBA world titles.
I’m talking to Grosvenor CasinoJones explains that Usyk’s elusiveness and experience will likely cause problems for the Briton, presenting him with a style he has never encountered before.
“Is Moses Itauma the most exhilarating heavyweight since Mike Tyson? Right now, yes, I think so. He has the explosive punching power that Mike Tyson had. If you can hit them before they hit you, most of the time you’ll knock them out.”
āThat’s what Mike did. So if [Itauma] if he does this, he will knock out most heavyweights. However, in Usyk’s case, he’s a bit difficult to hit.
“Moses gives all the heavyweights a difficult time. You can’t say he beat them until you put them in front of him [him]because you haven’t actually seen it cracked yet, but it’s the only one I can see [giving] For him, Usyk is the biggest problem.ā
While many consider Usyk vs. Itauma to be the most breathtaking fight in heavyweight boxing, it’s difficult to imagine the pair ever crossing paths in a competitive sense.