Moses Itauma forced to wait for title shot against Kubrat Pulev after new opponent announced

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Moses Itauma’s search for his next opponent will go on, with potential foe Kubrat Pulev having opted to fight Murat Gassiev.

This week, Itauma was ordered to challenge Pulev for the Bulgarian’s WBA (Regular) title, with the young Briton sitting at No 1 in the organisation’s rankings.

However, it has now been announced that Pulev, 44, will face Gassiev in Dubai on 12 December – one day before Itauma, 20, is planning to compete in Manchester.

“The Pulev vs Gassiev fight is signed, sealed, and confirmed, so Itauma will have to wait his turn,” said Ivaylo Gotzev, CEO of Epic Sports & Entertainment, which is organising the Dubai card.

“We have an official WBA resolution authorising Kubrat Pulev’s first title defense to be a voluntary, and in line with that, we’ve locked in a terrific opponent in Murat Gassiev.

“We understand young Itauma is chomping at the bit, and as a professional courtesy I’ve spoken directly with his promoter, George Warren of Queensberry Promotions, to offer him a slot on the undercard. That would set the perfect stage for him to face the winner of the main event. This keeps everything aligned with the WBA’s directive.”

It is unlikely, however, that Itauma will fight in Dubai instead of Manchester, where he is expected to compete on the same card as Derek Chisora.

Chisora, 41, is also awaiting an opponent for the event at the Co-op Live arena, where he will fight for the 50th and final time as a professional.

However, Zhilei Zhang’s advisor has said they were contacted by Queensberry regarding a fight with Chisora, claiming they quickly agreed to it.

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“We’ve been very quiet about it, because our team and Zhang himself, we’re just not ones to rush to social media,” Terry Lane told Boxing Scene. “But we were presented with the fight [three weeks ago], and we accepted in a couple of days. So, it’s been well over three weeks since the fight has been accepted on our end, in principle.”

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