British heavyweight boxer Moses Itauma defeated American Jermaine Franklin by knockout in the fifth round.
The Itauma-Franklin heavyweight fight took place on Saturday, March 28, in Manchester. The 21-year-old Itauma was undefeated in 13 fights (11 by knockout). Moses last fought in August 2025, ending it with a first-round knockout victory over Dillian Whyte.
Itauma's opponent was American Jermaine Franklin, who had 24 wins (13 by knockout) and two losses. Franklin first lost to Dillian Whyte in November 2022, after which he suffered a second consecutive defeat to Anthony Joshua. After that, the 32-year-old boxer won three consecutive victories, in the last fight defeating Kazakhstan's Ivan Dychko by unanimous decision.
The fight was scheduled for January 2026, but Itauma was injured and the fight was postponed to late March. Itauma took the lead in the first round, landing several blows to the head before attacking his opponent in the body.
In the third round, Itauma knocked Franklin down with a right hook to the temple, but the boxer was able to get up and continue the fight. At the end of the next round, Franklin landed several punches at the beginning, but was unable to continue the attack after a blow to the body. And in the fifth round, Itauma knocked out Franklin – he hit him with an uppercut, then delivered a “direct” blow to the face.
With the victory, Itauma retained the WBA International and WBO Inter-Continental heavyweight titles. The veteran boxer has 14 wins, 12 of which are by knockout, and remains undefeated.
“I tried to knock him out in the first and second rounds, but I thought maybe not now, so I went back to basics,” Itauma was quoted as saying by The Telegraph.
“I'm glad to win. God is good. I loved being in Manchester, that's where I won my first national title. Seven years later I beat Jermaine Franklin, which the British heavyweight boxers who have done great things couldn't do. I have to thank the Almighty and Jermaine Franklin for this opportunity, because it takes two to fight,” the winner said.
After Usyk vacated the WBO title, ceasing to be the absolute world champion, Fabio Wardley became the interim holder of the belt. In May, the Briton will fight against Daniel Dubois, after which the winner of the fight could face Itauma.
“We'll make an announcement when we sit down and look at a few things,” said promoter Frank Warren. “He's No. 1 in the WBO and WBA. There's going to be a lot of talk in the coming months about what's next and we'll figure something out. Don't worry, it's going to be a big, big fight because he [Itauma] is a big fighter. I'm pretty confident he [Itauma] will be fighting for the world title this year.”
The day before, the boxer spoke in an interview for The Ring about his career ambitions to win the world title. The Briton also spoke about Usyk having too many belts and added that “you just have to wait.”