At 20 years old Moses Itauma has already sparred with world champions, knocked out veterans on the global stage and turned down the temptation to chase records.
What he hasn't done is let any of it go to his head.
"I wasn't the most talented kid," he says. "I remember asking my amateur coaches who the most talented fighter to walk through the doors was and I was at number six or seven."
This admission comes from a fighter with 13 wins, 11 by knockout, who turned professional after dominating the amateur world championships. The gap between his self-assessment and his results tells you something about his approach: consistency over flash, process over hype.
"All the fighters I grew up with were a lot more talented than me but they're not here today because they chose the party life," he says. "I just knew that if I put all my energy into boxing I could get somewhere."
Itauma's path into boxing was accidental, almost reluctant. His brother Karol, sitting in a classroom in Kent with other boxers, wanted to join their conversations about the sport. They suggested he try a local gym. He became a national champion. Then he told Moses to give it a go.
"I did the first couple of sessions and threw up," Moses says. "I had a black eye and thought 'this sport's not for me.' So I stopped boxing and started playing a bit of football. I noticed I wasn't very good at that so I went back to boxing."
The school they attended, Green Echo Academy in Kent, had produced 13 national champions, Youth Olympic gold medallists and world champions. The environment was saturated with boxing culture. But environment alone doesn't explain what happened next.
During COVID, when amateur boxing ground to a halt, professional fighters still needed sparring partners. Lawrence Okolie was preparing for his first world title and needed a southpaw.
Moses was 14.
"Lawrence said, 'I'm not sparring a 14-year-old. I'm about to prepare for a world title'. But we put the gloves on and we had some interesting rounds. They kept asking me to come back."
Okolie spread the word. Soon Moses was sparring Anthony Joshua and Joe Joyce. The stories reached Frank Warren.
One story has become almost mythical in boxing circles: the teenager who turned up to spar Joe Joyce in his school uniform.
"I had a science exam that day. But the night before my coach rang me and asked if I wanted to spar Joe Joyce. I said, 'Yeah, all right, cool.'"
There wasn't time to go home to Kent from northwest London. So he took his boxing kit to school, left it with the PE department and his coach picked him up straight from the gates.
"I just turned up in my school uniform," he says. "Everyone was looking at me like asking what's going on. I remember yawning in the ring. Steve, who was his coach, asked if I was tired. I said, 'Yeah, I had a science exam.'
"He just started laughing. He said, 'What are you doing sparring Joe Joyce?'."
He won't discuss the specifics. "Sparring stories, you shouldn't really be talking about them. But it gave me a lot of confidence. I can tell you that."
The decision to turn professional came at the world championships in Benidorm. He'd fought four times in one week, beaten every top amateur in his path and reached the finals. It should have been the culmination of seven years' work.
"I felt no excitement, no buzz from it," he says. "I just thought, I need a bit of a switch up."
What changed most wasn't the training or the opponents. It was the visibility.
"All of a sudden I went from a kid with no attention to having all the lights on me," he says. "I have to grow up in front of the world now.
"I'm 20 years old. I'm still making very silly mistakes. And I have to talk about them. I'm not this polished person, but I have to put on a smile sometimes because the cameras are on."
Itauma's knockout record invites comparisons to Mike Tyson, to Anthony Joshua, to every heavy-handed heavyweight who came before. He's not interested.
"I want to create my own style where people aren't comparing me to Muhammad Ali or Mike Tyson or Anthony Joshua," he says. "I just want to be myself. Anthony Joshua has his career. Muhammad Ali had his career and Mike Tyson
"But I want to make my own. Am I a bad person for that?"
He's equally dismissive of pundits and commentators who offer opinions on how he should fight.
"Commentators and pundits are for the general public," he says. "Boxers have got to do what they've got to do. I don't think they're as clued up as some people make out.
"If I spend 10% of my energy arguing with these pundits it takes away from my boxing. Maybe when my career is all said and done I'll go back and correct them all."
The criticism that does reach him is about his fights ending too quickly. His knockout of Dillian Whyte in the summer lasted barely a round. Fans and promoters alike have suggested he should make fights last longer.
"If I had a pound for every time someone told me to make my fights go a bit longer I could probably buy a few things," he says.
But the frustration cuts both ways.
"For my last fight against Dillian Whyte I was in training camp for 14 weeks, killing myself on a treadmill," he says. "My knuckles are scarred. I had a black eye. I've had concussions. I've had everything,
"I wanted to show everyone what I'm capable of. And Dillian Whyte couldn't make it out of the first round. I was annoyed. I've been in camp for 14 weeks. I want you to at least see my fitness."
His preferred solution is simple: don't let opinions enter the equation.
"That's why I try not to let it go the distance, so the opinions can't get involved."
The missed opportunity to beat Mike Tyson's record as youngest heavyweight champion still stings. But Itauma has made peace with the fact that the timeline was never in his hands.
"I knew from the first couple of months of turning professional that beating Mike Tyson's record wasn't in my hands. It was in the hands of the general public, my managers, my promoters," he says.
"I was very annoyed because I felt like my words had lost a bit of value. I wanted to be the type of person who says they're going to do something and then does it. But it's harder when I'm not in control."
He pauses. "I was aiming for the stars. I didn't get there but I'm somewhere around. I was aiming for that Mike Tyson record. I didn't get it but it landed me a Dillian Whyte fight.
"So I don't see any harm in having big ambitions."
What shifted his development most was finding Ben Davison as a trainer. After trying four world-class coaches who taught him how to punch, Davison did something different.
"The other trainers taught me how to punch. I've been boxing for over 10 years. I know how to punch," he says. "But Ben told me when to punch. That was the deciding factor."
He describes arriving at Davison's gym and looking through the glass doors to see his own fights on screen with Davison making notes. None of the other trainers had done this.
"When I was shadowboxing I was laughing and talking. Ben said, 'Shadowboxing is actually a drill that needs to be taken seriously,'" he says. "He opened my mind up to this chess game of boxing.
"He's the first person to include video analysis. We record every sparring session, every fight. We go back and look over it."
Davison also rekindled something that had dimmed.
"Ben helped me rekindle my relationship with boxing. Boxing is a big part of my personality. I definitely have to thank him for that."
Itauma has also spent time with Tyson Fury across three training camps in Morecambe, Saudi Arabia and Marbella. The sparring was valuable. But the conversations mattered more.
"Just asking him questions about life, about religion, about different places, about relationships," he says. "That was more of a blessing." There's a quote: a good man learns from his mistakes but a great man learns from others.
"I'm able to access all these different people. Anthony Joshua. Tyson Fury. It would be silly for me not to ask them for their opinion and advice."
Itauma recently returned from Nigeria, reconnecting with his father's heritage through a trip organised by his sponsor BetNaija. The reception surprised him.
"I got so much love," he says. "When I got off the plane the security guard asked, 'Are these your boxing belts?' I said, 'Yeah.' He asked, 'Are you Nigerian?' I said, 'My father is.' And he said, 'We're proud of you.'"
The contrast with his mother's homeland was stark.
"I've always been repping Slovakia, but no one shook my hand in Slovakia," he says. "Nigerians are very proud and happy people. Even my mum could admit that."
Toward the end of our conversation Moses's brothers Charles and Karol join him on stage. They run the operation around him: a media production company, talent management, technology and property investments.
"His story is dear to us," says Charles, the eldest. "We want to make sure the correct story gets told and have control over that narrative. The more we can do to make sure he doesn't have to think about things outside the ring, that's our responsibility."
Karol focuses on ensuring longevity beyond the sport.
"What we emphasised is making sure that funds are made and invested smartly," he says. "We started with residential property, completing three projects within 13 months. Now we're pivoting into the care sector."
The family structure means decisions get debated, sometimes for hours.
"There's a lot of arguments, a lot of heated exchanges," Moses says. "Luckily I'm not part of it. I just hear the tip of the iceberg. I just do the fighting bit if I'm honest."
When asked what he'd teach young people about mindset Itauma returns to the theme that runs through everything he says.
"Life is only interesting once you follow curiosity. If you don't follow curiosity you don't really have much to work with," he says.
"So I'd say stay curious. And stay consistent. I wasn't the most talented fighter walking through the gym. But I managed to stay consistent. That's why I'm here today."
He's deleted Instagram from his phone. He reads books, listens to podcasts during those long drives to training and debates with his brothers for hours. The wisdom seems earned rather than borrowed.
"Where did I get my wisdom from? I hated reading books when I started," he says. "But I realised I was reading the wrong books. It was only when I came across 50 Cent's book, Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter. He mentioned that some people think reading is a chore but there's so much wisdom in books."
When asked where he sees himself at 30 he laughs.
"Hopefully retired somewhere, but that's 10 years ahead," he says. "God knows, but hopefully somewhere in boxing. I love being in touch with reality.
"If I go partying for three weeks I'm really going to see those three weeks when I get back to training. I can't be bothered to keep resetting."
The reset, you sense, would bother him more than the sacrifice. That's the consistency talking.
This is a man with big things in front of him - and even bigger ideas to teach the world.
Dan Ilett interviewed Moses Itauma at The Executive Summary: Live in London. You can watch the full interview on our Youtube channel from Saturday November 29th, 2025.
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