Billy Joe Saunders has compared Moses Itauma to Muhammad Ali, and said so knowing how it sounds.
The former two-weight world champion was speaking to talkSPORT about the 21-year-old heavyweight, who fights for a world title for the first time next weekend.
People might think I’m crazy. I think he’s the best I’ve seen since Muhammad Ali. It’s a big statement.
Saunders based it on what Itauma does at close range.
He has got that back foot, front foot ability. He’s got that slip-counter that he throws. He’s the only heavyweight I know that can lean off, throw a lead uppercut and finish with two or three shots in a split second.
Itauma is 14-0 with 12 knockouts and has never fought at world level. He stopped Jermaine Franklin in five rounds in March.
He faces Filip Hrgovic at the O2 Arena in London on August 29 for the vacant IBF heavyweight title, on DAZN pay-per-view. The belt became available when Oleksandr Usyk relinquished his titles in June. The fight was already booked as a regular heavyweight bout and was upgraded after Frank Sanchez, the IBF’s leading contender, accepted a step-aside fee. Whoever wins has to face Sanchez within six months.
A win would make Itauma the second-youngest heavyweight champion in history behind Mike Tyson, who was 20 when he beat Trevor Berbick in 1986.
Hrgovic is 20-1, his only defeat coming against Daniel Dubois in a fight for the same vacant title in 2024. Dubois now holds the WBO belt, which Saunders says Itauma is already better than.
