Nigerian-born heavyweight prodigy Moses Itauma has booked his brothers – Charles, Karol and Samuel – into a nearby hotel to serve as motivation ahead of his hugely anticipated International Boxing Federation (IBF) title fight this Saturday at London’s O2 Arena.
Sports247 gathered that, in his desire to snatch the vacant belt ahead of Croatia’s Filip Hrgovic, the 21-year-old Itauma, whose father hails from Akwa Ibom State, decided to bond with his siblings and at easy reach from his training base to the fight venue.
Itauma is happy that he can keep on enjoying family chats at easy reach, as he heads into the fight that could make him the second youngest world heavyweight boxing champ, after Mike Tyson, and youngest ever from Great Britain, where he emerged as most promising of the year 2025.
A report by UK’s Sunspot revealed, “Ahead of Saturday’s clash with Filip Hrgovic, the 21-year-old Chatham prodigy moved a handful of his brothers into a Harlow camp house to be close to Ben Davison’s thriving gym.
“Preparations for the O2 battle with the 36-year-old Olympic bronze winner got a boost when it was upgraded to a clash for the vacant IBF world title (after it was vacated by) Oleksandr Usyk.
“(Usyk) binned all four belts when he wiped the floor with the blue riband ranks but now the Kent wunderkind is on a recycling mission to tot up all that precious metal for himself.”
Itauma told Sunspot banter in the camp, adding: “We had a funny interaction about the bins and about who was cleaning what! It was just a funny debate, to be honest.
“It sparked a big debate about bins and cleaning and everything. But I take my own rubbish out, I clean up my own stuff, I stay out of it and watch them argue. I like being in camp because it gives me structure and routine.”
Sports247 reports that Satuday’s bout will be the next big test for Itauma, after his last outing, in which he became the first pugilist to stop USA’s Jermaine Franklin, who the Nigerian-born Briton stopped in the fifth round and moved his rate card up to 14-0.
He got that victory after following up a punishing left uppercut with a right hand and the youngster now turns his attention to top 10 ranked heavyweight Hrgovic, in what is set to be the biggest night of his career so far, as a hilt is at stake, on a card that is set to start at 5pm BST on DAZN PPV.
In contrast with Itauma’s fledgling rating, Hrgovic heads into the London bout on the back of a three-fight winning streak, haven beaten British stars Joe Joyce and Dave Allen as well as another Nigerian-born fighter, David Adeleye end route to Saturday’s IBF clash.
