The Moses Itauma vs. Dillian Whyte fight, along with the undercard, has been announced for August 16th in Riyadh. The event will be shown on DAZN. In the co-feature, WBO featherweight champion Nick Ball will defend against super bantamweight Sam Goodman.
Itauma-Whyte Riyadh Main Event
Itauma’s promoter is excited about this fight, saying “everybody loves it.” The fight is viewed as another mismatch for Itauma (12-0, 10 KOs), who is being moved very carefully. Whyte washed up, has arguably lost 3 out of his last 6 fights, and is no longer ranked in the top 15 by any of the four sanctioning bodies.
Full Undercard Fights Revealed
- Nick Ball vs. Sam Goodman
- Anthony Cacace vs Raymond Ford
- Filip Hrgovic vs David Adeleye
- Hayato Tsutaumi vs Quais Ashfaq
“I love the fight. I think everybody loves it. It’s a bloody good fight. Moses is the new kid on the block. He’s 20 years of age, has done everything up to yet what’s been asked of him,” said promoter Frank Warren to Queensberry’s YouTube channel about a fight between Moses Itauma and 37-year-old journeyman Dilliam Whyte on August 16th in Riyadh.
Itauma-Whyte is a step down for Moses from his last two fights against Mike Balogun and Demsey McKean. Those fighters would beat what’s left of Dillian at this late stage of his career.
Dillian Whyte’s Career Decline
Whyte hasn’t beaten a notable name in years, and he’s pretty old at 37. Dillian struggled in his last fight against Ebenezer Tetteh last December. He looked beyond shot in that fight, and was lucky that Tetten, 37, wasn’t so old. If he’d been a little younger, Whyte would have been in trouble.
“Obviously, going in with someone like Dillian, who has a wealth of experience at the top level and so forth, it’ll be a really big test for him to see what he’s all about. Dillian has been in with everybody and fought for a world title and given a good account of himself against some good fighters over the years. He’s beaten some good fighters. So, this will be a tough test for Moses if it happens,” said Warren.
I wouldn’t say that Whyte has been in with “everybody.” His resume is shaky and doesn’t hold up under examination. Dillian has been in with hyped British heavyweights, Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury, but those guys were never as good as many casuals had thought. They were two carefully matched heavyweights who lost once they were put in with a good fighter, Oleksandr Usyk.
So, Dillian hasn’t been in with everybody, and he’d have lost, even in his prime, to most of the top 10 contenders in this era.
Dillian’s Biggest Fights
– Tyson Fury: L
– Anthony Joshua: L
– Alexander Povetkin: L & W
– Joseph Parker: W
– Derek Chisora: W x 2
– Robert Helenius: W
– Jermaine Franklin: W questionable
– Oscar Rivas
Whyte lost to Povetkin and would have been beaten in the rematch if the Russian fighter wasn’t coming off an illness, dealing with COVID. The roughhouse tactics that Whyte used againt Parker likely would have resulted in him being penalized multiple times if that fight were staged on neutral turf.
That wasn’t a prime Parker either. The current version of Parker now surpasses that of Whyte. One can’t give Whyte credit for beating Parker either. Beating the journeyman Chisora means nothing because he was a British domestic-level heavyweight during his prime, not a true top-tier fighter.
Fans want Itauma to fight a live contender, like Richard Torrez Jr., Martin Bakole, or Bakhodir Jalalov. However, that might be too risky for Itauma because they could expose him as a fake. That would ruin things.
