Moses Itauma has proven himself to be a big punching heavyweight but has now named some others who have made their mark on him.
Itauma is one of the most exciting British prospects in boxing. He is still just 21-years-old and has a perfect record of 13 wins from 13 bouts, 11 by KO, nine of them within the opening two rounds, and his last outing saw him stop Dillian Whyte before the end of the first bell.
He takes on American Jermaine Franklin this month but ahead of that, Itauma has told Ring Magazine about some of the men who have hit him the hardest.
“Off the top of my head, you got this kid called Luka Pratljacic. He’s a Croatian guy. I think he’s still an amateur, he might have had one fight as a pro. Honestly getting hit by him I felt like I was getting hit by a baseball bat, it wasn’t even landing clean and I was like ‘someone check his gloves’ but he was wearing my gloves! His punches were very hard.”
He then gave credit to some other names, though he admitted in the banner division anyone has the power to cause trouble.
“Obviously Lawrence Okolie’s got a bit of a snap in his punch. Aloys Junior is a big powerful puncher and Tyson [Fury]’s got enough power to do some damage.
“But honestly, any heavyweight has the ability to knock out any other heavyweight so I wouldn’t say one hits harder than the other. I think if a chin needs 5lbs of pressure to get knocked out it doesn’t matter whether it’s 5.5lbs or whether it’s 10lbs, all we need is 5lbs pounds of pressure.”
A KO over Franklin – not known for his power – would be a big statement for Itauma as he looks to build towards world titles in 2026.
