Itauma proves credentials for world title shot with brutal knockout of Franklin

Even considering Itauma’s generational talent and rapid rise, his target of becoming heavyweight boxing’s youngest world champion has proved wildly optimistic. Indeed, that particular ship has sailed now that Itauma is older than the mark set by Mike Tyson – 20 years, four months and 23 days – in 1986. Comparisons have been drawn between Itauma and Tyson, given their power and success at a young age, though the former moved to distance himself from such discourse this week, saying: “I guess we’re kind of a polar opposite… We both just love knockouts.” 

And while murmurings of potential fights against Filip Hrgovic, Murat Gassiev, Lawrence Okolie and Oleksandr Usyk continue to swirl, Itauma has insisted that his focus is firmly fixed on Franklin. Speaking in his pre-fight press conference, the Chatham fighter said: “I have a serious opponent in Jermaine Franklin. We’ve asked for this fight [for] a year and a half, or something like that, so now we’ve got it. I feel this is the kind of the final piece to the puzzle.”

In his three-year professional career Itauma has contested just 26 rounds, many of which ended prematurely. Testing himself against a fighter of Franklin’s calibre will provide further insight into exactly what the boxing phenom is capable of and how he can develop moving forward. “There’s questions that my team want to know about me, there’s questions that I want to know about myself and I’m sure that there are a lot of questions that the fans want to know about me as well,” Itauma said. “So I feel like Jermanine Franklin is the final piece of the puzzle. So when I get asked about other fighters [I think to myself], that’s not going to happen if I don’t get through Jermaine Franklin. This is a serious fight and I’m looking forward to it.” 

Main-event ring walk expected at 11pm GMT