LONDON — Heavyweight prodigy Moses Itauma will return to the ring December 13 in the main event of Queensberry’s next Manchester show.

The 20-year-old (13-0, 11 KOs) is coming off a brutal 119-second destruction of former world heavyweight title challenger Dillian Whyte in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on August 16.

His promoter, Frank Warren, has confirmed that Itauma will be out one more time before the end of the year and that the undefeated southpaw will face a top-10 heavyweight for the first time in his career.

Itauma moved up to 10th in The Ring’s heavyweight rankings after his victory over Whyte while he is ranked at No. 1 (WBA/WBO). The IBF have him fifth and the WBC have him at 11.

It has been a question of when and not if Itauma will fight for a world title since he turned professional at 18 in December 2022, and it seems almost certain that first opportunity will come at some point in 2026.

But before that he will step up once more and face another of the division’s contenders in what will be his biggest fight on British soil to date.

Warren told Box Nation: “It will be December 13 in Manchester.

“He’s No. 1 with two organisations now. [The opponent] will be somebody in the top 10, of course. Manchester will be sold out with Moses.”

It is understood that Filip Hrgovic, who beat David Adeleye on the undercard of Itauma’s win over Whyte, is one of the names being considered for the clash. When The Ring spoke to Itauma’s manager Francis Warren earlier this summer, he named Hrgovic as a potential opponent depending on the outcome against Adeleye.

“I really do believe this man has everything in his arsenal to do some serious damage,” Warren said. “Not just against Dillian but also over the next five, six, seven months against those guys who are going to help him climb the ladder.

“People like the winner of Hrgovic-Adeleye, Otto Wallin, Kubrat Pulev perhaps. There are some guys out there that I’ve got my eye on.”

A different name that was put to Warren’s Hall of Fame father, Frank, was Daniel Dubois, who is looking to get back in the hunt for world titles following his stoppage defeat to Oleksandr Usyk in their undisputed title fight at Wembley Stadium on July 19.

Although Itauma-Dubois is not in the plan just yet, Warren believes it is an encounter which will grow to be as big as the long-awaited showdown between Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury.

Warren said: “That’s a massive fight one day. Moses against anybody is a big fight.

"That will be like an AJ against Tyson fight. Look at AJ, he’s coming off a few losses as well.”