Moses Itauma has people wondering if he will break Mike Tyson’s record by becoming the youngest world heavyweight champion. Fringe contender Itauma (11-0, 9 KOs) recently turned 20 on December 28, meaning he has four months to break Tyson’s record.

Itauma stopped 34-year-old Dempsey McCain (22-2, 14 KOs) in the second round on the undercard of the Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk 2 bout in Riyadh. The event was shown on DAZN PPV.

Tyson chase

Tyson was 20 years and four months old when he knocked out WBC heavyweight champion Trevor Berbick in the second round on November 22, 1986. It was “Iron” Mike’s 28th professional fight, and he was facing better competition than Itauma. This is a big difference.

The only semi-high-profile challengers Itauma has faced are 45-year-old Marios Wash and Demsey McCain. Before his match against Itauma, Wash had lost eight of his previous 12 matches. McCain had been inactive for 16 months and was coming off a 12-hour knockout defeat to Filip Hrjovic.

Itauma was matched very carefully, just like his brother, Karol Itauma, before he was eventually eliminated when matched up against a decent opponent.

Promoter Frank Warren has said he wants Itauma to win a share of one of the heavyweight titles in 2025. Either he will go after the ‘regular’ WBA champion Kubrat Pulev Or a temporary belt Joseph Parker He holds the WBO interim title. However, Warren is unlikely to put Itauma with him this year due to his high probability of losing.

Even 43-year-old Pulev may be too much for Itauma because the Bulgarian still has too great technical skills to prepare in one camp.

Brother’s shadow

Itauma is a good starter in the striking game, but he has no experience against anything remotely resembling a top-tier fighter. If he was thrown with Parker or Oleksandr Usyk like a shark, he would be outclassed and likely fired, just as happened with his brother, Karol Itauma, when he faced 2008 Olympian Ezequiel Maderna in 2023.

Before that fight, everyone was raving about Carroll, but he was completely out of his depth when put together with Maderna. Nowadays, you don’t hear from Carol anymore. The same thing could happen to Moses Itauma if he is placed at a good heavyweight.

“That’s a fair analogy,” said promoter Frank Warren. BoxNation When the interviewer told him that he had not seen anyone like Moses Itauma since Mike Tyson first started his career. “I imagined him winning the fight [Demsey McKean]But I thought he would get some rounds like in the previous fight [45-year-old Mariusz Wach].

“The power is unbelievable, and how relaxed he is when throwing punches. He’s got a good jab, he’s got a good boxing mind, and he’s done a great job.” [knocking out McKean in round one]. Although the fights didn’t last long, he seemed the calmest of them all.

“He’s got a very good head on his shoulders and a great team around him. He can fight. There’s no doubt about that. He can literally do whatever he wants to do,” Warren said when asked what Moses Itauma could do in 2025.

Let’s set the record straight a little. McCain had been out of the ring for 16 months and was coming off a knockout loss to Hrjovic. Before that, McCain had never defeated anyone of note during his 10-year career. All of his wins came against non-world-class opponents.

“No, I don’t want to get rid of it, especially with young fighters, and throw them in the deep end. I think whoever fights, whoever they are, their level, it gives them a big problem,” Warren said.

“I want to see him win a copy of [heavyweight] Title, and I want to see a big local brawl in the future, maybe between Daniel [Dubois] He is the one who stands. Yes, all these guys. All of these battles are there to be fought. It’s very exciting.

“The different combinations of fights that could be done. It’s pretty cool,” Warren said of the potential fights that could be fought involving Itauma.

Will Moses Itauma be a world champion by the end of 2025? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/oN0zasEkIj

– DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) January 3, 2025