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Moses Itauma
Moses Itauma (born 28 December 2004) is a Slovakian-born British[2] professional boxer who holds the WBO Intercontinental heavyweight title. He is the younger brother of light-heavyweight fighter Karol Itauma. Early lifeItauma was born in Slovakia in the town of Kežmarok to a Nigerian father and Slovakian mother.[3] He and his family claimed to have experienced racism in Slovakia stating “Me and my brothers got racially abused. It wasn’t a good place to be."[3] Finally, the family decided to move to England, firstly to leave the "racist environment" they claimed they were in and secondly to search for new opportunities which Slovakia did not provide. [3] He was the last person in the family to move to England which was in 2008 and eventually he settled in Chatham, Kent. Growing up, his favourite fighter was Prince Naseem Hamed and Itauma has stated that he tries to implement elements of Hamed's style into his own game.[3][4] He stated "I used to watch a lot of Naseem Hamed. I must have watched the same video of him about 50 times, I remember it was a highlight reel which started off with him dancing. He was one of my favourite fighters. I’ve got a different style from him but I do try to implement some of the things he used to do."[3] Itauma got into boxing at the age of nine through his brother Karol (who was an amateur boxer at the time) who then invited him to the boxing gym one day.[4] However, after a few hard boxing sessions, he switched to playing football with his other brother Samuel.[4] Later on, he switched back to boxing at St Mary’s ABC in Chatham, Kent after finding football boring.[3][4] Amateur careerItauma had an unbeaten amateur career, turning professional with a record of 24 wins with 11 wins by knockout. He claimed gold medals in Schools, Juniors, Youth European and the Heavyweight Youth World Gold Medal.[5] Professional careerItauma made his debut on the undercard of Artur Beterbiev vs. Anthony Yarde on 28 January 2023, at the Wembley Arena. He easily dispatched his opponent after just 23 seconds.[6] Itauma has aspirations for breaking the 38 year old Mike Tyson record for being the youngest heavyweight champion.[7] Itauma won the vacant WBO Intercontinental heavyweight title with a second-round stoppage victory against Germany's Ilja Mezencev on the undercard of the Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk bill in Saudi Arabia on 18 May 2024.[8] He retained his title with another second-round stoppage win, this time over Polish boxer Mariusz Wach at The O2 Arena, London, on 27 July 2024.[9][10] [11] In his next bout, he stopped Demsey McKean in the first round on 21 December 2024, at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia as part of the undercard for the heavyweight world title rematch between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury.[12][13] Professional boxing record
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