Boxing's newest superstar has got all fight fans hooked

It took Moses Itauma less than two minutes to drop and stop Dillian Whyte in Riyadh on Saturday night.

- STEVE BUNCE

Whyte was sent sprawling from a short right hook; he fell face first heavily and somehow beat the count, but his legs betrayed him for just a few seconds. He stood, unsteady and glassy-eyed, and the fight was sensibly waved off. Whyte complained, Itauma celebrated, and the sport has a new star.

Itauma is just 20, the win was his 13th and the eighth to finish in the first round - it was, however, his first win against a named and respected opponent. There will be voices of criticism pointing out that Whyte had previously been stopped three times and that he is, at 37, too old for the game. Forget that, because it was still a big step up in class for Itauma.

Whyte had prepared in private and in solitude, his anger at being overlooked a clear motivation. He had also transformed his body - in his previous fight last December he had been 261lb, but for Itauma he had trimmed down to just 244lbs. It was the lightest he has been for 10 years. There was clearly a lot of pride involved. “I just wish the people giving me no chance would come up to my face and say it to me,” Whyte had told me two nights before the fight. He had not accepted Itauma as a payday — he believed he could win.