Itauma fighting Usyk or Wardley a ridiculous conversation - Bunce
Moses Itauma has been lauded as the future of the division, which he might very well be. But right now, and where he is at in his career, he is not ready to take on the world's best heavyweights. And any talk of him fighting Oleksandr Usyk or Fabio Wardley for a world title is just a ridiculous conversation.
I've seen so many instances where young prospects, especially heavyweights, have been called the "second coming of X" - you can fill in the gap - and then they fall short. Because if you actually look at it in the cold light of day, what is there in Itauma's 13 wins that could lead anybody to think that as of today, he could fight any of the top guys? The good thing is the kid doesn't buy into all of it.
He just gets on with business. He doesn't buy into the hype and he knows how good he is. Itauma's record is perfectly acceptable for a guy who's had 13 fights and is only 21 years of age.
On Saturday, he has a real test against Jermaine Franklin – a perfect piece of matchmaking. And as I say, in 18 months to two-and-a-half years, he might have taken care of everybody in the division. Live text and radio commentary begins from 22:00 GMT on BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sounds, BBC Sport website and app.
Boxing loves a nice cliche. Every single Mexican fighter was supposedly one of 17 brothers and had been a shoeshine boy since he was six. Then there's the female fighter who had to pretend to be a boy because she wasn't allowed to fight as a girl - Caroline Dubois seems to have done that, and Katie Taylor most definitely did.