On Saturday night, the boxing world witnessed something that will echo for years. Twenty-year-old Moses Itauma, still barely out of his teens, walked through Dillian Whyte with the same cold, ruthless precision that has marked his perfect record. Thirteen fights. Thirteen wins. Eleven knockouts. Eleven of them inside two rounds.
Whyte wasn’t just another opponent. He was the gatekeeper. The grizzled veteran sent to drag Itauma into deep waters. He was supposed to test the chin, to slow the hype train. Instead, he became a statistic. One minute, fifty-nine seconds. And a career that once headlined arenas was in tatters. A single round. That’s all it took.
So, who is this British heavyweight storming the scene? Born Enriko Moses Itauma, he chose his middle name for the ring – simple, strong, destined for the spotlight. A man who levels opponents yet retreats to frozen lakes, ice fishing in silence while the boxing world reels from his latest knockout.
Calls for him to leap straight into world-title contention grow louder every fight. And yet, in Chatham, he moves through life like any other young man. On my last visit to Kent, he picked me up from the train station and drove me to the gym. He acted more like a chauffeur than a multi-million-pound fighter.
But, his story begins far from Kent. Born in Slovakia to a Nigerian father and Slovakian mother, Itauma arrived in England at the age of two. Life was hard. He and his brothers faced racial abuse. At home, his father pushed education above all else. He wanted Itauma to become a doctor and was disappointed about the prospect of him becoming a fighter.
Boxing wasn’t part of the plan and convincing his parents took a lot of work. Especially when Itauma and his brother Karol would get caught sparring bare-knuckle in the garden, leaving each other bloodied and bruised until their grandma stormed out, swinging towels to break it up.
On Saturday night, the boxing world witnessed something that will echo for years. Twenty-year-old Moses Itauma, still barely out of his teens, walked through Dillian Whyte
Itauma professional record stands at: Thirteen fights. Thirteen wins. Eleven knockouts. Eleven of them inside two rounds
Discipline, however, was written into his DNA. His mother’s family name, Blaschek, carries its own folklore in Slovakia. They are men who sprint up mountains, hammer out a thousand press-ups at the top and run back down. His father’s side demand the same austerity. Itauma has carried it forward.
But it was the training he did alongside his uncle in Switzerland that crystallised his relentless mindset. Days began before dawn with plunges into an ice-cold lake, followed by grinding physical labour. Itauma made a habit of training on Christmas Day and forgoing birthday celebrations once he turned 14 to get the psychological edge.
The same drive fuels an almost obsessive orderliness. His car and his room are immaculate – everything in its place, nothing left to chance or it throws him off. Yet in camp he stuffs his clothes into bin bags rather than drawers, insisting it’s the easiest way to keep them organised.
The same precision carries into fight night: headphones on, Busta Rhymes in his ears, rosary beads around his neck, and order in his mind.
At school, already 6ft 4in and 17 stone before turning 15, he became a protector of smaller children, silencing bullies and earning himself detention in the process. That protective streak grew alongside a resilience forged from exclusion; in youth boxing squads dominated by tight-knit traveller groups, he often found himself on the outside. Rather than be deterred, he committed to the sport giving up parties and narrowing his inner circle to one trusted friend – Tyrone.
By 15, he gave then-world champion Lawrence Okolie the hardest spar of his career and went toe-to-toe with Joe Joyce, Daniel Dubois, and Anthony Joshua – all while living a teenager’s double life. Midway through exams, he’d bolt from the classroom, sprint to the gym in his school uniform, and step into the ring like a man twice his age.
As for his professional debut? He flattened Czech Republic’s Marcel Bode in just 23 seconds. Comparisons to Mike Tyson followed almost immediately. With an unbeaten amateur record of 24 wins – 11 by knockout – and gold medals at Schools, Juniors, Youth European and Youth World level, Itauma entered the pro ranks carrying the weight of inevitability.
But, it wasn’t always like this. Itauma hated boxing when he first laced up gloves at nine years old. He wanted to be a footballer but found himself getting bored at training. He was drawn to something darker: the raw test of the body, the sting of every punch, the mental edge of pushing past the pain. What he once hated – grinding training, isolation, exhaustion – is now the part he lives for.
The teenager works and puts in the hard graft in the gym at Ragged School in Chatham, Kent
The 20-year-old was born in Slovakia but moved to England at the age of two
Itauma has garnered a lot of attention following his impressive knockout victories
Away from the ring, Itauma’s world is calm. He ice fishes, drawn to the patience it requires. He takes Conka brain supplements and writes poetry to steady his thoughts. His weekly escape is bowling with his brother Karol, who fights in the light-heavyweight division. Itauma even tried taking up golf but was terrible and laughed it off.
But his greatest joy? Fulfilling the promise that drove him from the start: retiring his mum. At 19, he did it. Now she lives in comfort, while he carries himself with the quiet focus of a man who has stripped life down to what really matters.
The only question left is how far, and how fast, he chooses to go. Because right now, heavyweight boxing isn’t waiting for Moses Itauma – it’s bracing for him.
So, who could be next? Well, Turki Alalshikh, who has overseen a string of major boxing events in Saudi Arabia, made it clear post-fight that his ambition is to see Itauma go straight into a clash with undisputed heavyweight world champion Oleksandr Usyk.
However, it’s unlikely Itauma’s team will agree to such a bout before he gets a couple more rounds under his belt. The more favourable fight for Itauma is Joseph Parker -the mandatory WBO title challenger.
Francis Warren (Itauma’s manager), Frank Warren (his promoter) and Ben Davison (his trainer) admit there are opponents in their mind – although not Usyk or Parker. They’re keeping the names quiet for now, wary of driving up the price. What they will say is that Itauma will be back in the ring sooner rather than later.
And every time he steps through the ropes, the sense only grows that Britain might just be looking at the future of the heavyweight division – a KO artist with the youth, power and composure to one day sweep the belts and become undisputed champion.
