GLASGOW, Scotland – Mike Balogun knows what his role is on Saturday, and he is not here to comply.
The American southpaw, who boxes out of Upper Marlboro in Maryland, faces one of the sport’s bright hopes in 20-year-old heavyweight contender Moses Itauma at the OVO Hydro.
Itauma is 11-0 (9 KOs) and struggling to find anyone who can give him rounds.
The pressure is on Itauma to perform every time. In the blue corner, the expectations on 41-year-old Balogun are not quite as lofty.
“It’s a heavy crown to wear, man, you know what I mean?” Balogun told BoxingScene of the one his opponent dons. “Having that type of pressure could end up breaking you, or it could end up making you. You have to make the decision, and you have to be mentally mature about it. And we’ll see how he's handling it. I’d say so far, so good to this point in his career.
“As you grow in the sport, you also grow in competition. And the pressure doesn’t do anything, it doesn’t stop. You get more pressure, and more pressure, and more pressure, bigger fights, and bigger fights, and bigger fights.
“So we’ll see how he’s handling it. The pressure is real. I was a young athlete at one point, you know what I mean, a 19, 20-year-old guy. And when you got a lot of people selling you to the public, and hyping you up, you got to put up. You have to. You either have to exceed expectations or live up to them. And so he’s done a fair job so far.”
Balogun is 6ft 1ins and in 2010 he was signed by the San Francisco 49ers having played college football for the Oklahoma Sooners.
He turned pro in 2014, and knew exactly who Itauma was when the phone rang and he was offered the assignment.
“Look, Queensberry’s done a really good job with the young man,” admitted Balogun. “They’re selling him, they’re building him, we know who he is in America. If you pay attention to the heavyweight scene, you should know who Moses is. So my initial [reaction was], ‘Yes, let’s talk about the financials.’”
He had seen Itauma box plenty of times.
“Young, athletic guy, good speed, good power, and he’s hungry,” said Balogun. “When I look at him fight, I see a young, confident guy.”
And while Itauma is following a wave of big-name British heavyweights who have claimed championship gold, Balogun admits the pickings have been slender in the US in recent years.
“Without an American heavyweight champion, we suffer over there, as far as heavyweights,” he said. “The little guys are always going to have opportunities over there. There’s a lot more little guys than there are big guys. So without an American heavyweight champion, man, you know… The worst thing that happened to the American boxing scene, as far as the heavyweights are concerned, is Deontay Wilder lost his belt. And Tyson Fury brought it over here.”
Jared Anderson also fell, losing to Martin Bakole, although Balogun is loath to write off the gifted American just yet.
“He took that stumble, but, you know, he’s a young guy as well,” said Balogun. “He can bounce back. Like I say, Moses is a young guy. A loss from me, him getting a loss, it doesn’t end anything. He’s young. Jared Anderson, like I said, it’s the mental thing. It’s the mental pressures. If you can’t bounce back from it, if you don’t got a good team, a good supporting system around you, it’s going to be hard for anybody to bear those pressures and come out with multiple victories.”
Balogun lost in two rounds to former cruiserweight Murat Gassiev in Armenia in 2023 but a UK crowd will not be able to intimidate him. Having played football at a high level, the American said he’s more than ready for a hostile reaction in Scotland.
“I’m hoping it's electric but I played college football at the University of Oklahoma,” said the former middle line-backer. “We played in front of 100,000 every Saturday with millions watching on TV. On the field, I don’t see anything but my opponents. It’s tunnel vision for me. I’m programmed that way. Everything, the crowd, you can hear the noise, but I don’t see you. I hear my coach’s voice, and I see my opponent. And I’m focused and it’s tunnel vision. So I think that that was a natural transition for me. And there’s no moment too big. I’ve been in big moments. I played in the national championship.”
It was preparing for football in the off-season when Balogun started boxing. As he worked on his conditioning, wanting to improve his reflexes and hand speed, he realized he might have a future in the sport. He started training in a boxing gym where he knew the owner and he’s now 21-1 (16 KOs).
When he retired from football, boxing was there for him.
“And it was game on since then,” he said.