Shannon Briggs has been speaking about the heavyweight match-up between Oleksandr Usyk and Moses Itauma.
Briggs is a former WBC heavyweight ruler who shared the ring with the likes of Lennox Lewis and George Foreman and remains clued up about the banner division.
One of its brightest stars right now is 20-year-old Itauma, who is proving himself to be technically adept as well as being a big puncher. Backing that up is his record so far – in just 13 professional fights, he has stopped 11 opponents.
Nine of those have all been beaten inside the first two rounds, and in his last contest in August with Dillian Whyte, he put on his best showing yet, stopping the former world title challenger inside the first two minutes.
After that, he declared himself ready for Usyk, but as of yet has not confirmed his next opponent ahead of an expected return in December.
Briggs has now shared his thoughts on the youngster, as speaking to FightHype, ‘The Cannon’ was asked if he was as excited about Itauma as everyone else.
“Yeah, I am. I’m excited. Something new. He’s doing his thing; he’s knocking everybody out that they put in front of him. We want to see more, that’s the only thing.”
As a follow-up, he was asked if the time was now right for a fight with Usyk.
“Too much too soon, but I would like to see him in a step up and then get something like that.”
Itauma had been linked with a fight with Kubrat Pulev in recent weeks, but it was then announced that the Bulgarian is instead set to face Murat Gassiev in December, with Gassiev’s team saying he will then fight Itauma himself.
