British teenage sensation Moses Itauma produced a surprising second spherical knockout to defeat Iija Mezencev on Saturday evening.
The 19-year-old has beforehand expressed his wishes to grow to be the youngest world champion in boxing historical past and made one other step in the direction of doing that in Saudi Arabia.
Itauma made his intentions clear from the primary bell as he marched in the direction of his German counter-part and commenced touchdown at will with some brutal mixtures.
{The teenager} then despatched his opponent crashing to the canvas within the ultimate moments of the primary spherical, nonetheless the judges as a substitute scored it as a push by the British star.
Nevertheless, Itauma did not wait lengthy within the second spherical earlier than delivering a brutal proper hook to Mezencev, which despatched him crashing to the canvas.
British star Moses Itauma (proper) produced a surprising knockout on Iija Mezencev (left)
The 19-year-old prolonged his unbeaten report to 9-0 after defeating the German in Riyadh
Itauma claimed the WBO Inter-Continental Heavyweight championship title with the victory
The German was clearly dazed and was wobbling immensely when he bought again to his toes earlier than the referee waved off the bout.
The victory in Saudi Arabia sees Itauma declare the WBO Inter-Continental Heavyweight championship and prolonged his skilled report to 9-0.
Talking after the bout, Itauma mentioned: ‘I am prepared, (that is the) first (title) of many. I simply go in there and do my job, I’m grateful to be right here. I used to be on level at present, wasn’t I? All the pieces is vital.
‘Anybody can get it. All people that I name out would not need to combat. Now that I’ve this title with me, I’m pleased with anybody.’
Again in January, Itauma sat down with Mail Sport to clarify his aspirations inside boxing – similar to turning into the youngest world champion since Mike Tyson.
‘I believe I can do it. It was much more doable in Tyson’s period since you by no means actually had the promoters and the mandatories. Even when I do not obtain it, at the very least I will be up there in these kind of talks,’ he mentioned.
‘I need to go into this yr full steam forward and grow to be the youngest heavyweight world champion but when it would not occur, it would not. I am not gonna cry about it. It is a aim however generally you do not obtain your objectives so that you simply transfer on to the subsequent one.’
The teenager has aspirations of turning into the youngest world champion since Mike Tyson
Itauma mentioned, in his post-fight interview, that ‘anybody can get it’ following the spectacular win
Earlier within the evening, former two-time light-heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev was knocked down and comprehensively overwhelmed on factors by Robin Safar.
In simply his second combat since being knocked out by Canelo Alvarez in November 2019, Kovalev stepped as much as cruiserweight to tackle unbeaten Swede Robin Safar in Riyadh, however was unable to roll again the years.
Having fallen behind on the scorecards, Kovalev was despatched to the canvas within the closing seconds of the ultimate spherical after a left hook-right hand mixture from Safar.
Kovalev, 41, rose to his toes to listen to the ultimate bell, however all three judges scored the combat in favour of Safar.
Throughout the 10-round contest, Kovalev appeared a shell of his former self, and this might spell the top of his glittering profession.