Moses Itauma: From poverty line to boxing’s prime time

As the last British boxer standing scraped into a quarter-final the young man who would have been favourite to illuminate the City of Light by winning the most golden prize in the Olympic ring was at lunch in London’s West End.

That Moses Itauma should be slicing into an expensively juicy steak instead of carving through super-heavyweights in Paris proved to be deeply poignant.

Ask this teenage knock-out phenomenon why he declined his anointed place in Team GB and he fidgets with his fork while seeking a sensitive explanation. Finally he says: ‘My priority had to be making my mother, shall we say, comfortable.’

More comfortable now than he is talking about the privations of his upbringing.

Poverty has been the breeding ground for many a boxing champion but the extent during Itauma’s boyhood on the Kent coast comes as a stark revelation.

‘Put it this way,’ he says, carefully: ‘There was always breakfast but often when we asked what was for our evening meal our father would say: Sleep for dinner.’

Fending off hunger by pulling up the bed covers was widespread in post-war Britain. Not so much a decade or so ago when Itauma followed his Slovakian mother, Nigerian father and two brothers from the Slovakian hamlet of Kezmarok to the port town of Chatham.

The initial hardship was worth it to a family escaping the racism which will be familiar to anyone who has watched professional football in much of Eastern Europe. Itauma says: ‘We couldn’t stand the looks and abuse any longer. Especially my father. He decided it was time to go to England. I was being looked after by my nan so I was the last out, at eight.’

When living standards went up in their new home so did Itauma’s weight, excessively thanks to fast food. He recalls: ‘As a kid I ballooned to almost 20 stone.’

Boxing has been the salvation of countless youngsters in several ways. Becoming serious about the hardest game – ‘I got real about boxing after I got bored with football’ – has honed this paunchy lad into a full-grown 17 stones of lean, fast, muscled menace. More Muhammad Ali than Tyson Fury, the latter of whom is one of several giant names with whom he has sparred. His gym report: ‘Tyson buzzed my bead in some rounds but I gave a bit back in others.’

The prolonged decision about the Olympics became final when he signed a professional contract on his 18th birthday. Frank Warren, who has just pledged £1 million to the BoxWise charity which empowers disadvantaged youth, was generous to the tune of the two Chatham houses in which the once impoverished Itauma has already invested.

‘It was the only choice,’ says the fighter. ‘The one I had to make even though Rob McCracken told me I was ahead of Delicious Orie for the super-heavyweight place in Paris.’

Coach McCracken has brought a host of world champions through his Olympic ranks – Anthony Joshua, Amir Khan, James DeGale and Nicola Adams among them. Had Itauma chosen differently he would be under less pressure now after what will be seen as a devastating Paris 2024, even if light-middleweight Lewis Richardson somehow goes higher than the guaranteed bronze which was beyond all the other five members of the GB team. The Delicious One – who like Moses and AJ has Nigerian parentage – included.

Nevertheless, even though he travels to Paris this week to watch the finals, Itauma has no regrets.

‘None,’ he says: I’ve also done the best thing for my career. At 19 I’m a year and a half and ten pro wins ahead of where I would have been if I’d gone to the Games. And much closer to challenging for a world title.’

He has also carried with him the rare distinction of being undefeated as an amateur. Those 24 wins preceded ten professional victories in a complete no-loss record, partial details of which speaks to his growth as a fighting man. In two early pro victories he was taken the six-round distance. ‘Looking back,’ he says, ‘I tell myself I should have stopped those two like all the others. But then again they gave me the experience of some rounds.’

That is more than the other eight could manage. Even Mariusz Wach, the giant Polish veteran and arch survivor against champions who was brought to the 02 on the Derek Chisora-Joe Joyce undercard the other night to offer lengthier resistance, was blasted out in less than two rounds.

So heavy are the punches that his manager, Warren’s son Francis, says: ‘It’s a nightmare finding sparring partners, let alone men to fight him.’

‘I’m up for any big name you can mention,’ says Itauma. Hopefully money will talk in that regard. The Saudis who are bank-rolling Fury’s and Joshua’s mega-millions fights are interested, having seen him in destructive action on the May night of the Gypsy King’s undisputed world title loss to Oleksandr Usyk in Ryadh.

That occasion also gave him the chance to mingle with ring legends who were guests at a Royal reception. He says: ‘I enjoyed being in the company of greats like Mike Tyson and Manny Pacquaio. I saw how they deal with the fame. I used to love watching Naseem Hamed when I was growing up. But I don’t have any idols. I’m my own boxer.’

His elder brother Karol is also on the Queensberry roster and when he lost his unbeaten record Moses described himself as ‘heartbroken’.

Karol describes his kid brother as ‘cold’. With all due respect, may I modify that to another single word: Cool. Moses comes across as calm and calculating in conversation as he is in the ring. Also, his Slovakian background notwithstanding, as polite and correct as an English gentleman. What do you know? A British education is still a goodly part of what it used to be. Still breeds aspiration.

Itauma has expressed an ambition to beat Mike Tyson’s record as the youngest world heavyweight champion of all time. Iron Mike was 20 years, four months and 22 days old when he inflicted a second round KO on Trevor Berbick in November 1986 to seize the WBC title. Since undercutting that would require him winning one of the belts by May next year that is unlikely, given the log-jam at the summit of the heavyweight division.

Usyk, Fury and Joshua are enmeshed with each other in a schedule of matches and rematches involving all the alphabet titles which will occupy them until the end of 2025.

Upon which Itauma offers this softly-spoken reflection: ‘I feel I’m ready for any of them now. Any time. No matter what my team think. But if beating other contenders before that gives me more experience that’s fine, too.’

There speaks a man grateful for his God-given talents of quick feet and fast hands with which to detonate punches of awesome concussive power.

No wonder this Bible-reading Christian has changed the name given to him as a child in Slovakia – Enrico – to one from the Old Testament. The wisdom of Moses is rare indeed in one so young.