Inside Moses Itauma’s nightmare search for opponents as manager lays out 2026 roadmap

Finding an opponent for Moses Itauma is no easy task, just ask his manager, Francis Warren.

The boxing mogul worked tirelessly around the clock to lock in his precocious client’s next fight, only to have the door slammed in his face over and over again by potential dance partners.

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Some priced themselves out of negotiations, while others turned down the fight without any attempt at haggling.

The sheer velocity of rejections resulted in Itauma’s next outing being pushed back from December 13 to January 24.

That is when Jermaine Franklin eventually accepted the fight, to the collective relief of everyone at Queensberry Promotions.

“I won’t name names because we may be able to do business with them in the future, but we went through about four or five names before we got the fight,” Warren told talkSPORT.com.

“Fortunately, Jermaine, who was near the top of that list, accepted.”

Ironically, Franklin had also initially rebuffed an approach before changing his mind.

“We wanted this fight post-Dillian [Whyte], but Jermaine priced himself out of it initially,” Warren added.

“He then went off and got himself a win (against Ivan Dychko), so I think that changed things.

“He obviously lost to Anthony [Joshua] and Dillian, and a third loss in quick succession would have left him in a Who Needs Them club.

“But since he has got that win, it feels like he wants to come over here and upset the party.”

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It’s perhaps no surprise that Itauma is being avoided at the rate he is.

The 20-year-old hasn’t put a foot wrong during a perfect 13-0 start to life in the paid ranks.

His last outing, a one-round blowout of Dillian Whyte, put the division on notice.

And while he is highly ranked with all four major sanctioning bodies (No.1 WBA, No.1 WBO, No.4 WBC, and No.12 IBF), the Chatham southpaw isn’t currently a mandatory challenger with any of them.

Warren anticipates that this will change in 2026, with the Champion Sports CEO poised to let his man loose at world level.

Where does Moses Itauma go with a win?

“We have an understanding that we need to get this next learning fight over the line with Jermaine before moving on,” Warren continued.

“That’s no disrespect to Jermaine, but that is how we view this next fight in January.

“And we have got comparables with the fight as well, if he does better than Anthony Joshua, then it’s a talking point, so it’s not just a learning fight, there is commercial value attached to it as well.

“After that, we are looking at knocking over the top five or six guys in all of the sanctioning bodies to set him up for the major titles.

“And fortunately, Queensberry have most of these guys under contract, which makes it a lot easier.

“I don’t want to be shouting out names because that is when everyone’s prices start to skyrocket, but we will be looking at the top guys.”