Moses Itauma’s highlight-reel knockout of Jermaine Franklin Jr. this past Saturday stole the headlines on a busy weekend of combat sports. In an impressive showing, Itauma bettered the efforts of his British compatriots Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte by becoming the first heavyweight to stop Franklin inside the distance.
Itauma flattened the American with a brutal left uppercut in Round 5 in front of nearly 15,000 adoring fans at the Co-op Live Arena in Manchester, England. For a 21-year-old to produce such a performance — and draw a crowd of that magnitude — is a testament to just how high Itauma’s ceiling could be.
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But while the knockout captured attention, Itauma’s candid mindset may be even more telling.
“It was a big blessing,” Itauma said of his performance on Uncrowned’s “The Ariel Helwani Show.” “Like the knockout was just crazy. I don’t even know — I’m speechless. Because obviously I thought I could do it, I just didn’t think it was going to be like that, especially against Jermaine Franklin.”
Franklin is known for being a durable heavyweight, and although many believe Itauma made a mockery of that trait by finishing him inside the first half of Saturday’s contest, the English contender maintains that he felt Franklin’s resistance early on and was forced to take things down a notch.
“I was trying to make a statement by trying to knock him out in the first or second round,” Itauma admitted. “And he just took my best shots, and I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to slow down now because like it doesn’t look like he’s going to be going anywhere.'”
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Itauma can credit the renowned trainer Ben Davison for his preparedness going into fights.
Davison, who boasts Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua on his star-studded training résumé, has quickly become one of the most sought-after coaches in British boxing — if not world boxing. Davison and tactician Lee Wylie have a unique method of training, focusing heavily on film study, which has even caught the attention of American pound-for-pound star Devin Haney across the pond.
“Before every fight, you get a scouting report,” Itauma explained of working with Davison. “And then once you start sparring, you start tailoring things down to the opponents. And so, for example, when you start camp, you might get like a scouting report that has five things, and you [try to] capitalize on those five things — and then as you start training, as you start sparring, he’ll narrow it down to two things.
“And obviously, during the [Franklin] fight, I did [focus on those things] — and then after the fight, he showed me a clip of the scouting report [from] fight night. So yeah, I box to the game plan, and he’s done that with [prior fights against] Demsey McKean [and] Mike Balogun. He’s done that with everyone.”
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Though Itauma has quickly become one of boxing’s brightest young stars, the heavyweight insists he isn’t fueled by the buzz — nor was success in the sport ever his goal. Boxing is more of a necessity for Itauma in his day-to-day life, he said, and has become a much-needed routine for him, similar to how former heavyweight champion Tyson Fury has described the sport as essential to filling a void in his own life.
“The reason why I do boxing isn’t to sell crowds and be an entertainer,” Itauma said. “I actually do boxing because it keeps me sane. It’s a habit that I’ve [had] since I was 9 years old. So, if you were to take boxing away from me, I don’t think I’d be calm. I don’t think I would be sane. So I do boxing for [those] reasons.
“It was the same when I was growing up. It was never, ‘Oh, I want to be this, I want to be that.’ It was more of the fact that I was just in the gym and I was training, and then I happened to enter the national titles, and then I happened to win this and win that.”
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