MOSES ITAUMA is a super-freak of a fighter built in a fantasy lab somewhere between the icy Slovak mountains and scorching Africa.
The 20-year-old heavyweight prodigy, with a Nigerian father, was born in his mum’s Kezmarok home but raised in Chatham, Kent.
GettyMoses Itauma has credited his Nigerian father and Slovakian mother with inspiring him to success[/caption]
GettyItauma revealed his uncle woke him up at 2am to go to the world’s largest ice bath[/caption]
Itauma’s coach has likened him to Avengers character Thanos
GettyLike Itauma, former world champion Anthony Joshua has talked extensively about his Nigerian heritage[/caption]
The union between the rugged central-European region – where freezing dips in the Poprad river instill an ice-cold will – and the West-African hotbed of professional warriors like Anthony Joshua, has created the 6ft 3in southpaw superstar.
And the code of ultra-discipline his military-focused maternal uncles have taught him has swirled with his father’s fearsome genepool to create a boxing force comparable with Marvel comic super-villain Thanos.
When SunSport asks Itauma if the unlikely blend of cultures has created a monster, he tells us: “Yes. 100 per cent.
“You probably wouldn’t think of putting those two nations together but I am very proud of my heritage.
“I have a military-like discipline from my mother’s side and I am just a genetic freak from my dad’s side.
“It is like I was made in a lab and this was all planned: Project Itauma.
“My old nutritionist actually used to call me ‘Project Thanos’, the Marvel character.”
When SunSport drops our guard and reveals our age by admitting we have only heard of Thanos via our schoolboy sons, we are firmly informed: “He’s a big powerful purple guy who fights the Avengers.
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“He is the villain in the film but, at the same time, he is very powerful and it takes all of the Avengers – who are all individually very powerful – to come together to beat Thanos.”
Back on planet Earth, Itauma explains how bringing together two countries separated by 3,000 miles and the Mediterranean Sea has helped British boxing spawn a new superpower who can carry the hopes of the nation on his shoulders, after Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury have retired.
He explained: “Being born in Slovakia and living there for a couple of years, to a Nigerian father, I have that little brag of being a weird mix of heritage.
“But I have learned a lot from everyone, if you ever go into my bedroom or my car, everything is spotlessly clean and I know where everything is.
“I went to go and work with my uncle in Switzerland for a while and I remember his apartment there being so spotlessly clean and he knew where absolutely everything was and everything had its place.
“I remember him telling me that it makes your life so much easier if you know where all the important things are. That’s just one aspect.
GettyItauma is unbeaten with nine of his eleven victories coming via knockout[/caption]
GettyIn his last fight, Itauma demolished the highly-rated Demsey McKean in one round[/caption]
“Another is, I have a cousin who I went running with in Slovakia, at high altitude, and he is not a boxer or an athlete, he does not run, he’s chubby. But he outran me.
“And he was telling me ‘we never quit, we never lose’.
“His heart must have been doing cartwheels inside his body but that mentality is nice to see and know it is part of me.”
It would be easy to assume that Itauma’s giant dad, who also sired light-heavyweight Karol and amateur footballer-turned-boxer Samuel, might be the sole source of the family’s fighting credentials.
But Itauma reveals that the fearless Slovak side of his DNA has played a huge part in his rapid and ruthless rise to world title prominence among so many other Nigerian fighters.
He said: “My mum’s maiden surname was Blaschek.
“Which is quite well known, where we are from, for the men loving fighting and – not being crazy – but doing crazy things like running up mountains, doing 1000 press-ups and running back down again. They are known for being disciplined.
“They are not crazy but they are so disciplined that people might think they are odd.
“I remember one Christmas day my uncle saw on the news that there had been the world’s biggest ice bath somewhere and then, at 2am, he got me and my brother down to the lake to jump in for five minutes.
“He’s not a complete nutter, just a very disciplined man.
“I went to live and work with him for a little while in Switzerland, he might still be up drinking at 2am but then he was up at 4am, doing his press-ups and pull-ups, and taking a cold shower. I was only waking up at 4:30am and he was ready to go.
Instagram / m.itaumaItauma revealed his family instilled a high level of discipline in him from a young age[/caption]
Instagram / m.itaumaThe boxer has trained in extreme conditions[/caption]
Instagram / m.itaumaItauma in Zdiar, Slovakia in 2019[/caption]
“And then, on my dad’s side, everyone knows about African culture and them being stupidly strong.
“Just look at the boxing landscape now, Lawrence Okolie, Richard Riakporhe, Anthony Joshua, Joe Joyce, Daniel Dubois and Deontay Wilder, all of Nigerian heritage.
“And in the UFC you have guys like Israel Adesanya and Kamaru Usman, the proof is in the pudding.”
The buzz around Itauma has been shaking gym walls for five years, when aged just 15 he started arriving to spar the likes of Joyce and Okolie while still in his school uniform.
There has been a concern that the latest British boxing ace was being overhyped and – like Dubois – was destined for a fall.
But the one-round demolition of respected Demsey McKean in December opened the floodgates for fanfare and outrageous predictions that we have a mutant mix of Mike Tyson and Oleksandr Usyk on our lucky hands – and Itauma isn’t interested in dampening those flames.
“Anything outside of the boxing ring is not really my expertise,” he told us at a Mayfair lunch arranged by manager Francis Warren.
“When I get asked questions, I try to articulate the answers as best I can, but it’s not my job, it’s my job to fight. It doesn’t matter how I answer these questions, as long as I am respectful. It’s not my job to talk.
“I had a couple of problems going into that fight and my coach even thought about pulling me out.
“Dempsey was a big test for me but my coach wondered if it was worth potentially losing.
“But I knew I could breeze into the fight, not get hit, and potentially knock him out early and that’s the only reason that the fight happened.
“Before the fight, I said to myself ‘if I am the person that I think I am, then I should breeze through Dempsey’. And I did.
“So I am the person I think I am.
“I don’t need to be overhyped.”
The SunItauma sat down to chat to SunSport[/caption] Creator – [#item_custom_dc:creator]
