Rather than engage with the calls, Wardley pointed to the pace of Itauma’s rise and the tendency for fans to move too quickly with young fighters.
“We as boxing fans, we love to get carried away with a story or a person, someone so young doing so much,” said Wardley to The Stomping Ground about fans pushing for him to fight Itauma right now. “Early doors, it is a bit like, ‘let’s slow it down.’”
It’s a smart play by Wardley to keep the focus where it belongs. While Moses Itauma is clearly the shiny new object of the heavyweight division, looking past Daniel Dubois on May 9th would be a massive mistake.
Wardley is right about the fans and media getting ahead of themselves. We see a young knockout artist and immediately want to see them in with the elite, but there is a real risk of burning out a prospect before they have even peaked. Itauma is only 21, and as Wardley noted, the “validation” needs to come naturally through rounds and experience, not just hype.
If Wardley doesn’t get past Dubois at the Co-Op Live, his preferences regarding Itauma become secondary. A loss to Dubois would likely push Wardley back into a position where he might actually need a fight against a surging name like Itauma to reclaim his standing.
Both Wardley and Itauma are trained by Ben Davison and fight under Frank Warren’s Queensberry banner. Wardley has been very vocal that training “side-by-side” in the same gym makes a matchup nearly impossible for the time being. It creates an awkward dynamic where their trainer would have to choose a side or step away entirely, which neither fighter seems eager to force.
Wardley is focused on the biggest names in the sport, Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua, and Oleksandr Usyk. From his perspective, Moses Itauma is a 21-year-old “prospect” (albeit a terrifying one).
While the boxing world is high on Itauma after his 5th-round destruction of Jermaine Franklin, Wardley feels he has already paid his dues by beating Joseph Parker and Justis Huni. He doesn’t see the benefit of putting his belt on the line against a young powerhouse from his own gym when he could be chasing undisputed status.
Wardley has suggested a specific condition for the Itauma fight: Unification. He recently noted that they should both go out, collect world titles, and then meet when the stakes are at their absolute peak.
“Maybe once I’ve got two and he’s got two, then maybe we need to have a serious conversation about it,” Fabio said about Itauma.
Wardley cannot afford to look at Itauma because he has a massive problem in front of him on May 9th. Dubois is a heavy-handed, elite heavyweight who just came off a war with Anthony Joshua. If Wardley loses that fight at the Co-Op Live, his “WBO Champion” leverage disappears, and the WBO might just order Itauma (their #1 contender) to fight for the title against whoever wins.
It’s a combination of gym loyalty and Wardley protecting his hard-earned seat at the top table. He wants Itauma to “grow up” into the role so the fight makes more financial and historical sense down the line.
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