The Moses Itauma, Mike Tyson Comparisons Need to Stop

Mike Tyson comparisons should stop

I’m not saying the Moses Itauma/Mike Tyson comparisons should stop because he lost. This isn’t an overreaction.

They should stop because they aren’t accurate.

Mike Tyson was a lot of things in the ring, but his greatest asset, the thing that made him Iron Mike, was his one-punch KO power. Mike Tyson could knock you out at any moment in the fight with one punch.

It’s such a rare gift for a fighter to have, especially at the heavyweight level. Being able to knock out a 250 lb athlete trained to take a punch with a single blow is almost unheard of.

George Foreman had that ability. Deontay Wilder had that ability. Mike Tyson had that ability. Moses Itauma does not.

Despite what his 12 KOs may indicate, he isn’t a particularly powerful puncher. Unlike those mentioned above, Itauma knocks his opponents out by accumulating damage. He’ll hit you will 9 or 10 devastating punches and then you’ll go down.

Even in fights like his decisive, second-round KO of Mike Balogun in May 2025, Itauma knocked his opponent down three times, and Balogun got up each time. The referee stopped the fight before Balogun made it to his feet the third time, but the defeated opponent wanted to continue.

You’ve never seen a Tyson victim get up off the canvas wanting to continue the fight. They thanked the heavens that their ordeal was over..

Itauma is more like these fighters

This isn’t a knock on Moses Itauma. There are only a handful of fighters in history that are like Mike Tyson, and not being one of them isn’t a criticism of him as much as it is of the people making the erroneous comparison.

To me, Itauma is more like James Toney, and there is nothing wrong with that.

James Toney is another all-time great Boxing Hall of Famer who relied on volume to defeat his opponents. Toney was 25-0-1 with 18 KOs when he won the middleweight title for the first time in 1991.

But James Toney didn’t have elite power either. He’d beat you down with a barrage of punches, and eventually either you wilted or you didn’t. Itauma also reminds me of David Benavidez. At 29 years old, Benavidez is an Itauma contemporary with a very similar fighting style.

He is 32-0 with 26 KOs. These days, Benavidez is fighting at the 200 lb limit, but he is also champion at 175 lbs.

Most fighters have a tough time carrying their power with them as they move to higher weight classes. And Benavidez is no different. His punches don’t have the same effect now that they did when he was knocking out super middleweights and light heavyweights.

But what he does still do is hit you with a lot of punches. Like Itauma, the volume is what eventually gets you, not the individual punch. So while he picked up another KO win by defeating Gilberto Ramirez, he had to work hard to do it.

What James Toney and David Benavidez have that Itauma has not shown yet, however, is the will to win.

James Toney was either going to break your will, or you were going to break his, but there was no in between. Toney was a defensive genius who used waist and head movement to make his opponents miss their shots while he hit them with his. That type of fighting style takes a lot of stamina.

David Benavidez isn’t as slippery as Toney, he relies on his high guard and tough chin for defense instead of movement, but his will is the same. Either you’re going to stop him from punching you constantly or you’re going to have a long night (or sometimes an early one because you are on your back). His stamina is also elite.

Itauma is a volume puncher who has a reputation of gassing out. The ninth round against Hrgovic was the farthest he had ever been in a pro fight.

To become an all-time great like Toney and Benavidez, Itauma needs to start thinking like them. Putting all your power behind the one punch when you don’t have one-punch KO power is a great way to drain your stamina prematurely. And stamina is the name of the game when you are breaking your opponents down systematically.