Itauma fighting Usyk or Wardley a ridiculous conversation – Bunce

Moses Itauma has been lauded as the future of the division, which he might very well be. But right now, and where he is at in his career, he is not ready to take on the world’s best heavyweights.

And any talk of him fighting Oleksandr Usyk or Fabio Wardley for a world title is just a ridiculous conversation.

I’ve seen so many instances where young prospects, especially heavyweights, have been called the “second coming of X” – you can fill in the gap – and then they fall short.

Because if you actually look at it in the cold light of day, what is there in Itauma’s 13 wins that could lead anybody to think that as of today, he could fight any of the top guys?

In the future, he might knock them all out.

The good thing is the kid doesn’t buy into all of it. He just gets on with business. He doesn’t buy into the hype and he knows how good he is.

Itauma’s record is perfectly acceptable for a guy who’s had 13 fights and is only 21 years of age.

On Saturday, he has a real test against Jermaine Franklin – a perfect piece of matchmaking.

Boxing loves a nice cliche. Every single Mexican fighter was supposedly one of 17 brothers and had been a shoeshine boy since he was six.

Then there’s the female fighter who had to pretend to be a boy because she wasn’t allowed to fight as a girl – Caroline Dubois seems to have done that, and Katie Taylor most definitely did.

With Itauma, the stories are about the established pros he’d sparred as a teenager.

I like the idea that he was still a schoolboy wearing his shorts and his sandals, although I think that’s ripping the proverbial out of it.

But testimony from different gyms and fighters suggests that yes, he did show up after school to spar with guys while he was still wearing his uniform.

I personally first became aware of Itauma when he was about 16.

He was on his way to winning junior and youth titles as an unbeaten amateur, still wearing a headguard. There were rumours circulating about this kid.

The way Itauma has been pushed, promoted and sold as a professional is not like any other heavyweight. And it has brought him a lot of attention.

There was all that talk of him beating Mike Tyson’s record of becoming the youngest ever heavyweight world champion, which has since passed.

I don’t think the Mike Tyson comparisons hurt Itauma in any way, because they weren’t being made by him.

He wasn’t walking around with a T-shirt saying “I’m going to beat Mike Tyson’s record”.

And when it became quite clear – maybe six months or eight months or a year before – that it wasn’t going to happen, he told me in an interview we did on BBC Radio 5 Live that he was relieved.

Less than two years ago, Itauma went the six-round distance with the unknown Kostiantyn Dovbyshchenko (9-12-1) and Kevin Nicolas Espindola (7-7). Those were not great performances.

Since then, he’s been a lot sharper with his finishing. He looks far more dangerous when he’s fighting men.

The improvements we want to see now are the ones we don’t know about yet.

We don’t know what happens if he’s under pressure. We don’t know what happens when a guy doesn’t fall over the first time he clips them.

And we don’t know what happens in round six or seven – or if he’s cut, or if he gets hurt and stunned.

In his last fight, he took on an experienced Dillian Whyte and did brilliant business with him. Now he has the perfect opponent in Franklin.

Franklin, at 32, is still relatively young in boxing years. His only two defeats have been quality losses on points – one to a much better Whyte than the man Itauma faced, and the other to Anthony Joshua.

In Franklin’s last fight he stopped the previously unbeaten Ivan Dychko (15-0). So if Itauma beats him on points, that would be phenomenal.

But if Itauma stops him, that would be one of the finest wins of his career so far – and exactly what he needs.

Then another big test like that – another big, old, solid guy. Someone like Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller who won’t fold in a round or two.

And then we can have another conversation about whether or not he’s ready for the likes of Wardley.