Forty years after Mike Tyson quickly bulldozed his way to become the youngest ever world heavyweight champion aged 20, Moses Itauma is leaving a similar trail of destruction as he closes in on a title shot.
Itauma (13-0, 11 KOs), 21, will face American Jermaine Franklin in Manchester, England, on Saturday with mounting interest in a journey that many expect he will conclude as the heavyweight division’s biggest star.
Itauma has stopped 11 of his 13 victims inside two rounds and his rush through the heavyweight ranks is earning comparisons to how Tyson dealt with opponents with such brutal efficiency early in his career.
Quick knockouts generate excitement and interest with fans, attract television/streaming companies, and can accelerate a world title shot just as we are seeing with Itauma.
But are the comparisons with Tyson, who became a global superstar and a feared champion in the 1980s, justified?
Mike Tyson’s journey to superstardom
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Mark Kriegel talks about his decision to write book about Mike Tyson
Mark Kriegel joins Scott Van Pelt to discuss the making of “Baddest Man” and what makes Mike Tyson such a compelling figure.
By the time Tyson first challenged for a world title just 20 months after his professional debut, he was well known to sports fans around the world with a bigger international profile than Itauma. The American’s fights came with a KO guarantee, and television viewers around the world became invested in his journey even before his first world title fight.
After a troubled childhood, 13-year-old Tyson moved from Brooklyn to Catskill to live with veteran boxing trainer Cus D’Amato, who had guided Floyd Patterson to world heavyweight champion in 1956. Under D’Amato’s expert tutelage, Tyson developed a peek-a-boo style of boxing with a ferocious attack and punching power.
When Tyson was 15, D’Amato said: “I’ve found kid who is going to take over from Floyd Patterson as the youngest heavyweight of all time. Note the name. It’s Mike Tyson.”
Tyson turned professional at 18 in June 1985 and made an immediate impact, winning his first 18 paid bouts by knockout within his debut year. Remarkably, 12 of those victories came inside the opening round.
Tyson’s prolific knockout form terrorised the heavyweight division in the mid-1980s. Nine months before he became world champion, he stopped Jesse Ferguson in six rounds in the New Yorker’s national television (ABC) debut and then chillingly said of his finishing right uppercut: “I try to catch him right on the tip of the nose because I try to push the bone into the brain.”
Many opponents looked beaten before they got into the ring to face Tyson.
“When I walk to the ring and catch the eye of my opponent, I can see fear in his eyes,” Tyson said at the time.
When Tyson registered a 17th straight win — a Round 5 KO of Mike Jameson in January 1986 — he bettered Rocky Marciano’s inside-the-distance victories from the start of a career by world heavyweight champions (Tyson won his first 19 bouts by KO).
Less than two years as a professional, Tyson left Trevor Berbick stumbling around the ring on drunken legs in a stunning second-round TKO win that crowned him WBC world heavyweight champion in November 1986.
“I was throwing hydrogen bombs out there,” said Tyson, whose trainer D’Amato died the previous year. “This is the moment I’ve been waiting for all my life.”
Tyson was electrifying at this time, and he dominated the heavyweight division until 1990.
Angelo Dundee, trainer of Muhammad Ali who had by then retired, said: “That kid Tyson is dynamite. I just couldn’t believe the speed of his punches, it was incredible. He’s going to be a great, great champion. As good as Ali? Let’s wait and see, but it’s very possible, the potential at his age is tremendous.”
Still 20, Tyson unified the titles when he won the WBA belt against James ‘Bonecrusher’ Smith in March 1987 and became undisputed champion with another points win over Tony Tucker in August 1987.
Moses Itauma fights less, but is just as ruthless
Boxers fought more regularly in the 1980s, so Tyson was a lot more active than Itauma. Early in his pro career, Itauma hoped he could break Tyson’s record as the youngest ever world heavyweight champion.
“In the first two months of me being professional, I realised that goal’s impossible, I was naïve when I said that,” Itauma told the BBC last year.
Despite boxing less than Tyson did, Itauma has still managed to almost keep pace with the American’s first-round wins. From his first 13 fights Itauma has stopped eight opponents in the first round, compared to Tyson’s nine wins in Round 1 from his first 13 fights.
Physically, they are different. Tyson was 5 feet 11 ½ inches, weighed 220 pounds and launched his hooks and uppercuts out of a crouching, bobbing and weaving position. As well as his punching power, Tyson also had incredible hand speed early on.
6ft 4in southpaw Itauma, who was born in Slovakia but moved to Kent, England, aged three, is taller and heavier (235 pounds) than Tyson and relies more on his jab and footwork to create openings.
But like Tyson, Itauma is ruthless when he hurts opponents with quick hands, as his record testifies. He showed impressive hand speed and concussive power when he blasted out Dillian Whyte in 119 seconds in August. Itauma swarmed all over Whyte who was finally sent down from a right hook to the temple.
“I’m only 20-years-old so I have got 10 or 15 years left,” Itauma said after making short work of Whyte, who took former world champion Fury six rounds for the WBC world title in April 2022. “If I get the opportunity [to fight for a world title] 100% I will [be champion].”
Itauma, who turned pro aged 18 like Tyson, has shown power in both fists. He uprooted Demsey McKean (December 2024) with a left hand in a first round victory, and Mike Balogun (May 2025) was lifted off his feet by a right hook for a Round 2 TKO win.
To put Itauma’s ruthlessness into perspective, current world heavyweight No. 1 Oleksander Usyk has not stopped any professional opponent inside two rounds, while Fury has registered six wins in the opening two rounds, most early in his career.
Other boxers who were destructive on their way to becoming world heavyweight king include:
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Rocky Marciano dispatched 11 of his first 15 opponents in the opening two rounds.
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Vitali Klitschko dealt with his first 10 professional opponents inside two rounds within a year; he won his first 27 pro fights by KO.
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Deontay Wilder stopped 13 of his first 15 professional opponents inside two rounds.
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Anthony Joshua stopped 12 of his first 15 professional opponents in just over two years.
Moses Itauma title shot beckons
As well as adding his name to the five youngest ever world heavyweight champions, Itauma could also rank highly among those who have won a world title in the fewest fights. Joshua won his first world title a decade ago in his 16th professional fight and Itauma is well placed to get the chance to fight for a belt sooner.
Tyson Fury told ESPN: “I’ve been in camp with the him for the last three years so I know what he’s all about. I would like to see him some titles, it’s alright gassing he’s going to be the next Muhammad Ali but when he’s not won an English or British title or f— all, it’s hard to convince the world.
“You have to collect your belts on your way. I like to do it the old fashioned way, win every belt along the way and then try and be a world champion, so don’t just jump in the pan because it might be too soon, or it might not be. It would be a guessing game, but if you’re fighting for titles along the way, you know what your progression is.”
Fury previously warned that age is a factor.
“Itauma will wreck all those old men out of the division: Usyk, AJ, Jarrell Miller,” he said. “Whoever is old. All these big names of the past are all a spent force. Even the world champion now [Usyk], Moses will wreck him because it’s a young man versus an old man and old men can’t mess with young men.”
And Itauma looks likely to earn a world title shot in the next 12 months, especially if Usyk decides to relinquish one of the belts like he did last year.
Itauma is No. 1 in the WBA rankings, behind WBA regular champion Murat Gassiev. He is also No. 1 challenger for WBO champion Fabio Wardley, who was elevated to world champion after Usyk relinquished the title in November and defends the belt vs. Daniel Dubois on May 9. WBC, WBA and IBF champion Usyk will fight Rico Verhoeven on May 23 in Egypt with the WBC strap at stake. The WBA or WBO belts look most likely routes for Itauma.
Although Tyson created more noise and global interest as he stormed to world title success 40 years ago, Itauma’s crowning moment looks like an inevitability in his current form just as it did for Tyson.
