Moses Itauma discloses severity of bicep injury prior to Jermaine Franklin bout.
Moses Itauma has discussed the bicep injury that led to the postponement of his heavyweight bout against American Jermaine Franklin Jr. earlier this year.
Itauma (13-0, 11 KOs) was scheduled to compete against Franklin (24-2, 15 KOs) on January 24 in Manchester, but it was confirmed just six days before the fight that the British boxer had sustained an injury during training.
The match is now set to occur on March 28 at the same location with the same undercard.
The 21-year-old detailed that he attempted to continue training after injuring his bicep, until promoter Frank Warren intervened and advised him to seek a proper medical evaluation.
“I had a sparring session and that’s when I injured it,” Itauma stated. “I told Frank, ‘I’ve done this, I’ve done that’ … And then he insisted that I go get a scan. I was like ‘no, I’ll be fine, I’ll be fine.’
“I was doing my utmost to recover from what I thought was a minor issue, as boxers typically push through discomfort.”
After a short period away from the gym, it became evident that the injury was more serious than initially believed upon his return.
“The next day I woke up feeling significantly better, but I wasn’t completely healed,” he explained.
“Then about a week later, I thought I would be ready, and when I sparred, I threw a punch and immediately sensed that something was off.
“So I informed Frank that I was experiencing the same issue and it wasn’t really improving. He said, ‘go get a scan, go get a scan, I won’t allow you to fight unless you get a scan.’
“Then I got the scan and it turned out I had a grade two tear, and I was trying to push through it as if nothing had happened.”
Itauma mentioned that he could hardly run for a period due to the injury, but he is now back to full training and sparring in preparation for his return to the ring next month.
The British fighter is regarded as one of the most promising heavyweights globally, but he has not competed since August of last year due to various injuries and challenges in finding a suitable opponent.
