Heavyweight contender Moses Itauma has turned his back on the partying and admits that it can all wait until he is retired. The unbeaten 21-year old aims to register victory number fourteen when he faces Jermaine Franklin at the Co-op live arena in Manchester on Saturday night, live on DAZN. Itauma is arguably the hottest prospect in boxing right now and he took his career to new heights when he stopped former contender Dillian Whyte inside two minutes on his latest outing in August last year. However, with his rise up the ranks has come a rise in popularity and he has spoken of a new-found discipline after suggesting he dabbled in the party lifestyle a little. “I feel like I lost myself to find myself,” said Itauma. “But even when I was at these parties – I know you’ve got to enjoy yourself and relax – but for me personally, I was like ‘I’m not really doing my purpose’.
“I know boxing is my number one and when I was at these parties and what not, obviously it was great and it was fun to be around new people, but I almost just had that element of like I need to get back in the gym. A lot of my friends could have been something and they got caught up in the party life. Even if you ask my amateur trainers, all of them said I wasn’t the most talented boxer, I didn’t hit the hardest, I wasn’t the best, but I kind of had the consistency to stay on, whereas everyone else went to parties. So, when I was at these parties, I was like ‘I don’t want to get caught up in that cycle that they got caught up in’, because obviously I am trying to achieve something. Or maybe I’m just boring!”
Boring in the ring Itauma certainly is not and he has ended all of his last nine fights within two rounds, drawing comparison to a young Mike Tyson in the process. If Itauma keeps winning and he becomes a world champion, then the temptation and trappings outside of the ring will become even greater as his popularity grows. “We’ll see what happens when I get there,” Itauma replied when quizzed on if it would become a fine balancing act.
The chance of fighting for a world title will get even closer if Itauma defeats Franklin and a shot at WBA ‘regular’ champion Murat Gassiev is rumored to be next if he prevails this weekend. However, he has seen his circle of friends become smaller as he gets closer to the summit of the heavyweight division and he now values those closest to him greater than ever. “I tell you one thing, when you start achieving a little bit of success, you start to see value in the relationships that you have. So, I started realizing that my bond with my family became stronger and more important, and the ones that kind of weren’t so much, they kind of just dropped out. Everyone was like ‘you’ve changed, you’ve this and you’ve that’ but it’s supposed to. My whole life has changed, you’re not supposed to stay a caterpillar. It’s not like I don’t want to go to these parties and I don’t want to do what they’re doing, it’s like the conversations you are no longer relating to. The things that they’re talking about, you’re no longer talking about the same things. Especially with myself, I feel like everyone is in tune with the same thing. So, when it comes to my family, if they’re talking to me then they’re talking to me about boxing. And if they’re talking to me brother, they are talking about how they can generate other things. Everything has value, I guess, and I feel I didn’t really have that with my old set of friends.”
So, the partying is on the backburner as he bids to record the biggest win of his career and the talk of world titles will get very serious if he disposes of Franklin like he has most of his opponents.
When asked if he was planning to save the parties for when he retires, his answer was short and sweet: “Exactly.”
Itauma faces a tough test against Franklin this Saturday night, March 28th. Watch exclusively with a DAZN Ultimate subscription to also get PPVs Chisora vs. Wilder (April 4th), Wardley vs. Dubois (May 9th), and Usyk vs Verhoeven (May 23rd) included.
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