Promoter confirms July return after Franklin knockout as unbeaten heavyweight moves toward title contention
Moses Itauma will return in July against a top-10 opponent following his stoppage win over Jermaine Franklin. Promoter Frank Warren confirmed the plan after the knockout in Manchester.
Frank Warren has set the direction for Moses Itauma following his stoppage win over Jermaine Franklin, confirming the unbeaten heavyweight will return in July against a top ten opponent.
Itauma improved to 14-0 with a fifth-round finish at Co-op Live in Manchester, putting Franklin down in the third before closing the fight with a left uppercut that left him flat on the canvas. The result keeps him at number one with both the WBO and WBA.
Warren highlighted how Itauma set the stoppage up.
“Dropped him and stopped him, and done it in a very professional manner. Cool, calm, collected and bided his time, picked his shots, and the end of the fight, the shot he caught him with, he was knocked out with that and on the way down caught him with another one and he was face down on the floor.”
He then laid out what comes next in comments to The Stomping Ground.
“We’ll see what happens after all the fights but what the name of the game is, is he’ll fight in July. So that won’t be his next fight [Wardley vs. Dubois winner], at all, and we’ll see where we go from there … Whatever happens he will fight somebody who’s in the top ten.”
That keeps Itauma out of the immediate title run for now, despite his ranking, and puts him in line for another step up against a proven name.
He picks up the openings early and drives his shots up the middle once the line is there.
The level is already set for what comes next. July brings a top ten opponent.
