Boxing
Anthony Cacace to risk IBO world title against former US amateur star in Saudi Arabia
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IBO super-featherweight champion Anthony Cacace will return to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on 16 August to face Raymond Ford.
Cacace, 24-1 (9), will defend his titles over twelve rounds against the US fighter, whose sole loss came against Nick Ball in June last year. Meanwhile, Cacace was last in action in May when he stopped Leigh Wood in Nottingham in nine rounds.
The Belfast man, who has been on a good run of form since beating Michael Magnesi for the title in 2022, will be returning to Riyadh after fighting there in May 2024 when he beat Joe Cordina in eight rounds.
A match against Ford offers an intriguing match-up for Cacace. Ford, 17-1-1 (8), is a former amateur star who turned professional in 2019 after winning the 2018 and 2019 National Golden Gloves Championship.
In 2021, Ford travelled to the UK where he stopped Reece Bellotti in three rounds (Bellotti is set to face Ryan Garner on DAZN at the end of July for the British and European championships). That fight came immediately after the only other blemish on his record â a draw against Aaron Perez, 10-0 at the time, in 2021.
Headlining the Riyadh card will be a showdown between heavyweights Moses Itauma, 12-0 (10), and Dillian Whyte. Itauma, who knocked out US fighter Mike Balogun in two rounds a few weeks ago in London will be taking the biggest step of his career in fighting Whyte.
Whyte brings significant experience, having challenged Tyson Fury for the heavyweight championship of the world in 2022 and facing former WBA champion Alexander Povetkin in 2020 for the interim WBC title. Whyte lost both of those fights but has been considered in the upper echelons of the division ever since.
Whyte, 31-3 (21), has long been linked with another Anthony Joshua fight (the pair first fought ten years ago, with Whyte proving a tougher-than-expected opponent), but it now seems that he is being put in a position of testing a younger prospect. A win over Itauma would reinvigorate Whyteâs career, while a loss â disputed or not â would begin to relegate him to gatekeeper status.
Since losing to Fury in six rounds, Whyte has won three in a row, outpointing Jermaine Franklin Jr at the end of 2022, before stopping both Christian Hammer and Ebenezer Tetteh in 2024. Whyte had also been scheduled to face an unknown opponent this weekend in Ipswich on the undercard of Fabio Wardley and Justis Huni but pulled out days before.
At the time, promoter Frank Warren told one newspaper that Whyte had come off the card due to the opportunity for a âbig big fightâ in August. It now seems apparent that that bout was to be this fight against Moses Itauma.
