Having suffered stoppage defeats to both Moses Itauma and Tyson Fury, Dillian Whyte has weighed in on whether the young bull is ready to truly test himself.
Itauma did come through a test of sorts against Jermaine Franklin, but proved far superior and scored a fifth-round finish when they collided in March.
Prior to that, the unbeaten knockout artist comfortably stopped Whyte in the opening round, barely getting out of first gear as he ruthlessly dismantled the heavyweight veteran.
It would therefore appear that he is ready to compete at a higher level, perhaps against Filip Hrgovic, who has been mooted as the frontrunner for his outing in late August.
Additionally, names such as Fury have been mentioned as intriguing opponents for the 21-year-old, even if ‘The Gypsy King’ already has his hands full.
The 37-year-old comes off a unanimous decision victory over Arslanbek Makhmudov in April, returning to the win column after suffering back-to-back points defeats against Oleksandr Usyk in 2024.
Fury is now expected to enter another warm-up fight in August, possibly on the undercard of Pierce O’Leary vs Mark Chamberlain, before taking on Anthony Joshua later this year.
Based purely on his performance against Makhmudov, though, Whyte has told IFL TV that he would give Itauma a fair chance at beating him.
“It’s hard to say, because you can’t really judge Tyson on his last fight. But if he [looks the same] against Joshua, you’d think Moses would have a good chance at beating him.
“He’s slowed down, he didn’t look the more powerful in the fight, but he still outboxed [Makhmudov]. It depends on what [version of] Tyson Fury shows up.”
While Fury’s long-awaited clash with Joshua is set to take place in November, ‘AJ’ must first defeat comeback opponent Kristian Prenga in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on July 25.
Whether or not Itauma lands names like Fury, Joshua and Usyk before they ultimately retire remains to be seen.