Moses Itauma marked his highly-anticipated return to the ring with an explosive knockout win over Jermaine Franklin on Saturday night.
The British heavyweight star extended his unbeaten record to 14-0 as he stopped his American rival in the fifth round of their clash at the Co-Op Live Arena in Manchester, England.
Itauma floored Franklin in the third round initially before he closed the show with a brutal left uppercut two rounds later to reaffirm his position as the number one contender with the WBA and the WBO.
Speaking to The Stomping Ground, promoter Warren reacted to Itauma’s performance as he heaps praise on the unbeaten Brit for beating Franklin in a ‘very professional manner’.
“Dropped him and stopped him, and done it in a very professional manner. Cool, calm, collected and bided his time, picked his shots, and the end of the fight, the shot he caught him with, he was knocked out with that and on the way down caught him with another one and he was face down on the floor.”
Warren went on to reveal what could be next for Itauma as he claims the 21-year-old will face a top ten opponent when he returns to the ring this summer.
“We’ll see what happens after all the fights but what the name of the game is, is he’ll fight in July. So that won’t be his next fight [Wardley vs. Dubois winner], at all, and we’ll see where we go from there … Whatever happens he will fight somebody who’s in the top ten.”
It’s no secret that Itauma is establishing himself as one of the most exciting heavyweights on the planet. The 21-year-old from Kent is now closing in on a world title shot as he sets his sights on becoming one of the youngest world heavyweight champions of all time, an opportunity that could arise later this year.
