Boxing loves a pleasant cliche. Every single Mexican fighter was supposedly certainly one of 17 brothers and had been a shoeshine boy since he was six.
Then there’s the feminine fighter who needed to fake to be a boy as a result of she wasn’t allowed to struggle as a lady – Caroline Dubois appears to have accomplished that, and Katie Taylor most positively did.
With Itauma, the tales are concerning the established professionals he’d sparred as a young person.
I like the concept that he was nonetheless a schoolboy carrying his shorts and his sandals, though I believe that is ripping the proverbial out of it.
But testimony from completely different gyms and fighters means that sure, he did present up after college to spar with guys whereas he was nonetheless carrying his uniform.
I personally first turned conscious of Itauma when he was about 16.
He was on his option to profitable junior and youth titles as an unbeaten beginner, nonetheless carrying a headguard. There had been rumours circulating about this child.
The approach Itauma has been pushed, promoted and bought as an expert is not like another heavyweight. And it has introduced him a variety of consideration.
There was all that speak of him beating Mike Tyson’s file of changing into the youngest ever heavyweight world champion, which has since handed.
I do not assume the Mike Tyson comparisons harm Itauma in any approach, as a result of they weren’t being made by him.
He wasn’t strolling round with a T-shirt saying “I’m going to beat Mike Tyson’s record”.
And when it turned fairly clear – possibly six months or eight months or a 12 months earlier than – that it wasn’t going to occur, he instructed me in an interview we did on BBC Radio 5 Live that he was relieved.
It wasn’t a burden as such, however an pointless weight of expectation.
