Moses Itauma may indeed be the future of boxing’s heavyweight division.
A 19-year-old uber-talent widely considered to be one of the best prospects in the sweet science regardless of weight class, Itauma needed less than two minutes to demolish Demsey McKean in an eye-opening performance on the undercard of Saturday’s Oleksandr Usyk vs. Tyson Fury 2 event at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Just one week shy of his 20th birthday, Itauma (11-0, 9 KOs) downed McKean (22-2, 14 KOs) twice in the opening round with vicious punches, first with an overhand left that had McKean on shaky legs even after the referee’s 10-count, and then with another thunderous, perfectly placed overhand left that nearly spun McKean out of his shoes and left him fumbling around on the canvas.
The stoppage officially came just 1:57 into the bout.
With the win, the teenage Itauma defended his WBO Intercontinental heavyweight belt and captured two more trinket heavyweight belts, the WBA International and Commonwealth Silver titles.
McKean was supposed to represent a significant step up in competition for Britain’s Itauma. The 34-year-old Australian southpaw was 22-0 in his professional career before getting stopped in the final round by world-ranked heavyweight contender Fillip Hrgovic in his previous outing in August 2023.
Yet Itauma, who appears to have all the skills and potential to break Mike Tyson’s hallowed 38-year-old record as boxing’s youngest heavyweight champion ever, passed what was meant to be a tough test with flying colors.
Tyson was 20 years, 4 months and 22 days old when he won the WBC title in 1986. Itauma now has his work cut out for him as he enters 2025 with that goal firmly in mind.
Get more from Saturday’s action from Uncrowned’s Usyk vs. Fury 2 results and highlights hub.
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