Moses Itauma is moving confidently through the heavyweight division and beginning to mark out opponents he sees as his biggest rivals.
Itauma is still just 21 years old, and at the end of the month he has the chance to become the second-youngest world heavyweight champion in history.
Mike Tyson currently holds the record: he was 20 years and 4 months old in November 1986 when he stopped Trevor Berbick in the second round to pick up the WBC strap.
Itauma faces the biggest challenge of his career to date when he takes on Filip Hrgovic, who has lost only once to Daniel Dubois and has beaten the likes of Zhilei Zhang, Dave Allen and David Adeleye.
Itauma himself has proven to be a big puncher with fast hands on his way to 12 KO wins from 14 fights in total, and has dispatched the likes of former world title challenger Dillian Whyte inside one round and became the first man to stop the durable American Jermaine Franklin when he did so in six rounds last time out.
The pair clash at London’s O2 Arena on August 29, and ahead of that, while speaking to Boxing News, Itauma named a possible future opponent he already has his eyes on.
“It’ll have to be Agit Kabayel. He’s beaten everybody that’s there. He’s beaten Zhang … he’s pretty much beaten everybody that’s rising right now, so I’d say he will probably be my biggest rival.”
Kabayel is the undefeated 33-year-old WBC champion. The German has already beaten the likes of Zhang and Frank Sanchez, who is the mandatory challenger Itauma would also have to face if he beats Hrgovic and before he could entertain a unification with Kabayel.
