I'm a rising KO artist who watched Tyson Fury and now hoping to break Mike Tyson's heavyweight record
Mia Walsh
Updated on April 07, 2026
Moses Itauma hadn’t even made his professional debut when comparisons between he and Mike Tyson were being made.
Itauma, 18 that night in January 2023, was already being spoken of as capable of rivalling Tyson as the youngest world heavyweight champion in history – “Iron Mike” was 20 when he defeated Trevor Berbick to start his revered reign – but even then a greater challenge was in his way.
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His older brother Karol had just been stopped, having lost for the first time as a professional. Itauma in turn had to compartmentalise his concerns for him, focus on confronting Marcel Bode, and impressed by succeeding in winning inside a round.
“I was just sitting in my changing room by myself, and my S&C coach and one of the boxing coaches came into the changing room,” Itauma told talkSPORT. “But it’s only been 15 minutes [Karol had been scheduled to fight for 10 rounds].
“‘They ain’t happy; that must mean that Karol got stopped’. Karol came in crying. ‘I’ve got to fight underneath this.’
“Emotions were high. When my brother lost I felt like I lost – especially losing by KO as well. I was nervous going into it, ‘cause that just happened, and I had to brush it under the carpet and focus on my fight.
“What annoyed me was everyone saying, ‘Just think about your fight’, and telling me what to do. If it’d been up to me, as soon as Karol lost I’d have gone in there straight away.
“It’s the waiting… I never really got it fully out of my mind – even when I was in the ring I couldn’t enjoy it.”
The Itauma brothers were later ringside that evening, watching the thrilling main event between Artur Beterbiev and Anthony Yarde.
“Yarde never had a lot of amateur fights, but you don’t need to have a lot of amateur fights to know your way around the ring,” he continued. “As long as you got a dog mentality and you can throw a jab.”
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Tyson, who missed out on the 1984 Olympics but was by no means held back as a professional, might once have spoken similarly. He and Itauma crossed paths in Riyadh, where Itauma, against Istvan Bernath, recorded his latest victory on the undercard of Tyson Fury-Francis Ngannou in front of so many of their sport’s greats.
“It was a good experience but it was hard to take it in, knowing I had to fight,” he said. “I grew up watching these [retired fighters]. Ngannou; Tyson; even Tyson Fury; Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson; Roberto Duran; Lennox Lewis; Frank Bruno.
“I spoke to Frank Bruno [once guided by Frank Warren, whose son Francis is managing Itauma]. I spoke a little bit to Francis Ngannou. Frank was like, ‘We’re keeping an eye on you – good luck to you’.
“[Tyson] said, ‘What’s your trajectory? How many fights are you going to have?’ I said, ‘Eight fights this year; eight fights next year. But I want eight quality fights, not eight bums’. He was like, ‘Not everyone is a bum’. I said, ‘You learn from every fight’. He said, ‘Yeah, you especially learn from your losses’.
“When I was there, I scored it 96-95 to Fury. When I went home, I watched it back; I had Ngannou by one [round]. It was the knockdown that did it. It was very close.
“[Fury is] a lot better [than he showed]. That was one of Francis’ best nights, and one of Fury’s worst. You can’t put someone in the top 10 [of the heavyweight rankings] just on one fight.”
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Plans exist for Itauma to join Fury’s training camp for the undisputed heavyweight title fight with Oleksandr Usyk. Itauma, not unlike the world’s two leading heavyweights, will again be proudly representing the cultures that shaped his life when he does.
“My dad’s Nigerian,” he says. “Born in Nigeria. Proud Nigerian. My mum’s Slovak. My dad lived in Moscow; they communicated in Russian and my dad taught my mum how to speak English.
“I was born in Slovakia. I moved [to Chatham, Kent] in 2008 when I was three or four years old.
“My dad always tried to bring me up in his culture; my mum always tried to bring me up in her culture. I guess they came to an agreement – I’m a mix of both.
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“The [Nigerian] music; the food; the clothes; everything. I found my way into the [Nigerian] cultures. That’s how it was.
“[But] even when I came to England and I started coming into the English culture I still had that bit of Slovak in me. I still listen to Slovakian music; when my mum cooks I eat the food.”
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In his 24 fights as an amateur Itauma won World and European gold medals at youth level. He is a 6ft 4ins southpaw, and consequently aged 16 was used as a sparring partner by Anthony Joshua, then the IBF, WBA and WBO heavyweight champion, when Joshua had preparing for Usyk in mind.
If his talent meant he could have followed Joshua in representing Great Britain at the Olympic Games – Delicious Orie is instead expected to do so – it perhaps seems fitting that he turned professional on the undercard of Beterbiev-Yarde, given the progress Yarde has made as a professional after so few fights as an amateur, and that he is among the fighters Itauma most admires.
