UPDATES: Moses Itauma vs Lawrence Okolie Postponed
By Eddie Sanchez
Updates on January 13, 2026:
Moses Itauma’s fight against Jermaine Franklin has been postponed after the young phenom sustained an injury in camp, Queensberry Promotions has confirmed.
The entire card has now been moved to March 28 at the same venue.
“Moses Itauma has sustained an injury in camp for his fight with Jermaine Franklin on Jan. 24,” Queensberry said in a statement.
“Due to this, the whole Magnificent 7 show has been postponed and moved to the new date of March 28th at the Co-Op Live in Manchester.”
Itauma dealt with various injuries in 2025 and struggled to find opponents willing to face him. He fought just twice last year, with knockout wins over Mike Balogun and Dillian Whyte.
Original Story:
The WBC mandatories meeting erupted once Lawrence Okolie, ranked first at heavyweight, was ordered to face Moses Itauma for the right to challenge champion Oleksandr Usyk.
Usyk, who is opting to take a voluntary defense during the first half of 2026, likely against Deontay Wilder, and interim champion Agit Kabayel fighting January 10, a “snit” occurred on the panel when trainer Joe Gallagher asked for No. 1-ranked and two-division champion Okolie to be named the mandatory.
Sulaiman rejected the idea, saying, “We do not favor mandating fights as a protocol if [the bouts are] not of the highest possible level,” and then moved to order Okolie, 22-1 (16 KO), to an eliminator against dynamic 20-year-old Itauma, 13-0 (11 KOs), who is ranked No. 4.
A Queensberry representative, Lee Eaton, approached to state that it was too early to say whether or not Itauma and Okolie would be willing to fight each other if that bout would be ordered.
With that, the board approved Okolie-Itauma.
Itauma, who is also ranked #1 by both the WBO and WBA, is now in a prime position to advance his pursuit of the heavyweight title and a presumed matchup against Oleksandr Usyk. Itauma is fighting Jermaine Franklin next month, and the WBA and WBC have now both issued orders to advance him further along the queue.
“It’s an interesting development,” Gallagher told BoxingScene. “We’ll have to see what the plans are for Itauma but today’s events suggest this might not be the direction that his team are planning to go (with a potential fight against Kubrat Pulev availble for the WBA Regular title). Whatever happens, though we wanted to be mandatory, we’re delighted to be involved in a final eliminator. We’re here to fight anyone and everyone.”
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