British teenage heavyweight Moses Itauma claimed the WBO intercontinental belt against Ilja Mezencev with a brutal second-round stoppage in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Saturday night. Before then, Mark Chamberlain went one better with a first-round knockout of Joshua Wahab. Watch the ‘Ring of Fire’ card, live on TNT Sports Box Office for £24.99, with coverage starting from 15:00 BST.
Moses Itauma blew Ilja Mezencev away in the second round as he claimed his first belt in a huge display on the Tyson Fury v Oleksandr Usyk card in Riyadh, which is live on TNT Sports Box Office.
Itauma, just 19 but already looking like the most promising young heavyweight in Britain, if not beyond, was making his ninth professional appearance.
His opponent in Ryadh was experienced German Mezencev with the vacant WBO intercontinental heavyweight belt on the line.
Itauma started strong as he looked to kick on, being just a year and two days younger than Mike Tyson’s record as the youngest heavyweight champion.
The teenager appeared quicker than ever and landed some hard left-hand counters in the first round against his Kazakhstan-born opponent, nine years older than him.
Itauma battered Mezencev at the end of the first round with some more fierce blows from his left, and had the bell not sounded it would have been no surprise to see the referee step in.
That bell prevented Itauma from recording his fifth first-round stoppage, but seconds into the second, he left his opponent beaten, flattened on the canvas and while he got back to his feet, he was clearly unsteady and the ref then waved it away.
Following that clash, in a WBC heavyweight title eliminator, Frank Sanchez came up against Agit Kabayel, with the pair both bringing unblemished records into the ring.
Kabayel came into the fight as the slight favourite, and the winner would have been – in theory – in line to challenge the winner of Fury vs. Usyk down the line.
In the seventh round Kabayel almost had his man with a sickening body shot to force a seven-count, with Sanchez recovering with a minute of the round left to go. Another body blow had him down on both knees once more, and he failed to make the count after being systematically broken down.
Before the Itauma fight, Mark Chamberlain took on Joshua Wahab, with the latter moving up to fight at lightweight and Wahab managed to beat the count after he was sent to the canvas from Chamberlain with a beautiful punch, before he came back to finish his opponent off for his seventh career first-round stoppage.
Chamberlain is now the WBC silver lightweight champion and he could now move his ambitions up the division.
The 41-year-old Sergey Kovalev, a three-time light heavyweight champion, launched the main card against Robin Safar.
Kovalev was a shadow of his former self and in the last round – trailing on the scorecards – he was dropped with a heavy right-hand before being saved by the bell from a KO loss.
Kovalev had been regularly walked down as he looked to keep his career going but Safar, 10 years his junior, kept up the pressure throughout and took a unanimous decision.
Fury v Usyk on TNT Sports Box Office costs £24.99 in the UK and can be watched on discovery+, EE TV, Virgin Media TV and Prime Video.
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Fury and Usyk will meet in Riyadh on Saturday, May 18.
The ring walk for Fury v Usyk is expected to be around 23:00 UK time.
TNT Sports Box Office coverage will be presented by Becky Ives alongside Carl Frampton, David Haye and Steve Bunce with commentary from Darren Fletcher and Richie Woodall.
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