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.
With Itauma, the stories are about the established pros he’d sparred as a teenager.
I like the idea that he was still a schoolboy wearing his shorts and his sandals, although I think that’s ripping the proverbial out of it.
But testimony from different gyms and fighters suggests that yes, he did show up after school to spar with guys while he was still wearing his uniform.
I personally first became aware of Itauma when he was about 16.
He was on his way to winning junior and youth titles as an unbeaten amateur, still wearing a headguard. There were rumours circulating about this kid.
The way Itauma has been pushed, promoted and sold as a professional is not like any other heavyweight. And it has brought him a lot of attention.
There was all that talk of him beating Mike Tyson’s record of becoming the youngest ever heavyweight world champion, which has since passed.
I don’t think the Mike Tyson comparisons hurt Itauma in any way, because they weren’t being made by him.
He wasn’t walking around with a T-shirt saying “I’m going to beat Mike Tyson’s record”.
And when it became quite clear – maybe six months or eight months or a year before – that it wasn’t going to happen, he told me in an interview we did on BBC Radio 5 Live that he was relieved.
It wasn’t a burden as such, but an unnecessary weight of expectation.
