Moses Itauma beat Kostiantyn Dovbyshchenko over six rounds, going the distance for the first time in his fledgling heavyweight career.
Itauma was out in London’s Copper Box Arena for his third professional contest. After his first two, he’d been in the ring for less than a minute – a 23 second stoppage of Marcel Bode and 35 seconds to deal with Ramon Ibarra.
Scheduled for six – although not many predicted it would make it there – Itauma got straight to work against his Ukrainian opponent, who entered the ring with a record of 9-12-1 – although none of those losses had come by stoppage.
The southpaw from Kent could have entered this fight and neglected defence in favour of blowing out Dovbyshchenko, but, to his credit, his movement was stellar and he’s not keen to take any unnecessary damage.
That said, he was throwing with intent from the first bell, working the body and sending out a stiff jab. At the start of the second, he hurt his opponent to the body enough to see very little return fire.
Dovbyshchenko took a straight left in the third and staggered back, throwing his arms up to get the crowd going. To his credit, he threw back more this round, but that’s a dangerous game against a young man like Itauma and it didn’t take long for him to be deterred again.
He stuck around for the fourth and fifth, not doing much of anything other than giving his young opponent rounds and showing a stellar chin. Itauma had a chance to show a full skillset for the first time.
Nice and relaxed 🤣
Moses Itauma showing us the kind of night he's having 🤷♂️#FightNight | #JoyceZhang | 📺 BT Sport 1 pic.twitter.com/BXHpyQc5SZ
— Boxing on BT Sport 🥊 (@BTSportBoxing) April 15, 2023
Before the sixth, Itauma mentioned an injury in the corner, which doesn’t bode well for his eight-fight plan in 2023. The pair traded on the final bell before it was announced as 60-54 for Itauma.
In the aftermath, he confirmed the injury.
“I feel like I boxed okay. I could’ve done better but I gotta go back to the drawing board. I don’t ever look to go the distance … In the fourth round I hurt my lead hand. I’m a right-handed southpaw, I couldn’t get my measuring stick.”
A three-time European amateur champion, Itauma is the highest rated prospect the British heavyweight scene has witnessed for a long time. He’s sparred with the top dogs since he was 15-years-old and, by all accounts, handled himself well.
Queensberry were planning on boxing him eight times this year – five more after tonight – to help him on the way to his goal of beating Mike Tyson’s record as youngest ever heavyweight champion at 20 years, four months and 22 days old. Depending on the extent of the injury, that may now change.
This was a smart step up, and paired with the praise from fighters and analysts, Itauma continues to ride high on the well-deserved hype. Going the distance takes away some of his aura, but the experience will be worth it.