Tim Bradley Explains How Oleksandr Usyk Would Drown Moses Itauma In The Second Half Of A Fight

Tim Bradley says Moses Itauma’s first-round knockout win over Dillian Whyte last Saturday night wasn’t enough to prove that he’s ready to challenge Oleksandr Usyk for his undisputed heavyweight championship.

Itauma’s Lack of Experience

Bradley points out that the 20-year-old Itauma (13-0, 11 KOs) still hasn’t even gone past six rounds in his two-year professional career. If he fights Usyk, the champion will make it a point of taking him past six rounds to “drown” him in the second half.

Itauma didn’t have a long amateur career to prepare him for the top-tier heavyweights like Usyk. As an amateur, Itauma had only 20 fights before turning pro and didn’t face the world’s top fighters. In contrast, Oleksandr had 350 amateur fights, fought the best fighters in the world, and captured an Olympic gold medal in 2012.

Queensberry has been babying Itauma since he turned pro in 2023, matching him exclusively against journeymen. Last Saturday was the last of old washed veterans that Itauma fought with his headliner against 37-year-old Whyte in Riyadh.

The Glazing from UK Media

The glazing that Itauma received for that fight from the UK media and uninformed fans showed that they actually believed that he was fighting the best in the world instead of another old guy for superficial record-padding performances. In other words, smoke and mirrors.

“Young gun isn’t ready for Usyk. He hasn’t done nothing to make me know,” said Tim Bradley on his channel, talking about Moses Itauma after his win over the over-the-hill Dillian Whyte last Saturday. “This dude hasn’t been past six rounds yet. That’s exactly what Usyk would do if he fights him. He would drown him.”

Instant Superstar Gamble

It looks like Turki Alalshikh is going to offer Usyk a load of money for him to defend his four titles against Itauma. Whether he’s ready or not, the youngster will be thrown in with Usyk in hopes of him capturing the belts and becoming an instant superstar on the quick. If it works, great. But if it doesn’t, Itauma will be exposed, and the top fighters in the division will have a blueprint to follow in how to defeat him.

“Moses Itauma, you’re looking like the real deal, but you’re not ready. There’s only one Oleksandr Usyk.. The skills aren’t there in the heavyweight division. It’s not like the 90s. It’s not like the 80s. It’s not even like the 70s. Dillian Whyte had a puncher’s chance,” said Bradley.

What Itauma needs is eight fights against these top-tier opponents to give himself the experience that he needs to win a world title and hold onto it. He should fight these guys:

• Filip Hrgovic
• Joseph Parker
• Fabio Wardley
• Daniel Dubois
• Agit Kabayel
• Richard Torrez Jr.
• Lenier Pero
• Bakhodir Jalolov

Whyte had a puncher’s chance, but he was too skittish even to try to throw. He looked rusty, slow, and not strong at the weight. He’d lost a ton of weight for this fight, coming in at the lowest in a decade. Sometimes when overweight people lose weight, they complain of being weaker. It looked like that was the case with Whyte. He’d taken off too many pounds in training camp for his good.