A small town in eastern Slovakia, originally named after the cheese market which took place in the centre of it, may seem like an unlikely starting point for the next great heavyweight story.

Only a few miles from the base of the Carpathian mountains sits Kezmarok, home to around 17,000 inhabitants and birthplace of Moses Itauma, or Enriko to his friends, the 20-year-old prodigy who has never lost a fight in his life.

His rise to prominence since turning professional in January 2023 had already caught the attention of boxing fans, but the manner of his victory over experienced former world title challenger Dillian Whyte, which came in just 119 seconds in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Saturday night, has opened the door to the mainstream.

Although he never had the same Olympic springboard as commercial behemoth Anthony Joshua, the two-time world heavyweight champion, comparisons to Mike Tyson and his ability to crush opponents in a similar manner have piqued the interest of the wider sporting public. And with British boxing hurtling towards the post-AJ era, kicking and screaming for a new star, Itauma’s arrival could not have been timed any better.

But, like many stories of this nature, the beginning was inauspicious to say the least, which takes us back to Kezmarok. It was where Itauma’s Nigerian father and Slovakian mother had settled to raise their three sons, eldest Karol, middle child Samuel and Moses, who was born three days after Christmas in 2004. Moses was his government name, but mum also called him Enriko, after her favourite musician Enrique Iglesias.

The family unit was not there for long, however, with racism forcing his parents to seek pastures new. “There was a lot of racism in Slovakia,” Itauma said in 2023. “When my brother was younger he had very bad asthma so he was put in a healing hospital. My brother Samuel, who is a lot darker than me, was actually locked in a cupboard for a couple of hours. The kids said they wouldn’t play with him because he’s Black. Every day he would come home crying so my mum just had enough of it.”

It was Karol and his parents who headed to England first with Moses, following a spell living with his grandma in her village, eventually joining in 2008. “Karol didn’t know one word of English when he moved over and my mum just chucked him into school,” Itauma said. “He was about six or seven and had to learn quickly.”

Learning quickly was something that Karol was good at, and that quality extended to boxing. It just so happened that the family relocated to Chatham, Kent, and sent their boys to a school with a remarkable history for producing talented boxers. “I think my school had nine national champions,” Moses said. “And Karol was in a class with two boxers from St Mary’s Amateur Boxing Club. One day he heard them talking and decided to take himself down the gym to try it out.”

It would be a decision that would alter the family’s lives forever as, before too long, Moses followed his older brother too. But while Karol’s love for boxing was instant, the same cannot be said of Moses, four years his junior.

“After about five or six sessions I said I’d had enough and went back to playing football,” he said. “But I got so bored of football so quickly I went back to the gym and haven’t left since. I was nine.”

Within four years of his first bout, 17-year-old Karol won gold at the 2019 Youth Olympics and his kid brother made quick strides, too. “It helped Karol was already boxing,” Moses said. “He used to wake me up to go running.”

At 10, Moses weighed 48kg (105.8 pounds) for his first skills bout but he was growing quickly, moving from 56kg (123.4) to 72kg (158.7) in the space of one year. In the ring, he was moving at a similar pace and his fourth bout was a European championships semifinal against a Ukrainian who had boxed more than 30 times. Itauma stopped him inside a round. He then beat Russia in the final to become European champion for the first time.

By the next season, he was a 95kg (209.4) heavyweight and won national and European titles in the same year before CoVID hit and shut everything off. He had turned 15 around a month after the first case of the deadly virus had been recorded so by the time Britain had gone into lockdown in March 2020 his amateur boxing career, like everyone else’s, stalled.

But, in keeping with the rest of his life, that closing door only prompted him to try a different handle. While amateur boxers were not allowed to spar during the pandemic, professionals were and so began the legendary stories involving some of the best fighters in the world and a teenager who would turn up to the gym wearing his school uniform.

Lawrence Okolie still says at 15 Itauma gave him the hardest spar of his life while he also shared the ring with Joshua, Joe Joyce, Daniel Dubois and a long list of others.

“Obviously me and Karol would spar a lot in the garden and whatnot,” he said. “But I was getting too heavy and I needed live threats.”

There are not many southpaw heavyweights doing the rounds so when Itauma’s coach initially offered to bring him down for professional sparring, Okolie’s coach at the time, Shane McGuigan, was surprised when he walked through the doors. Later that night, McGuigan told his friend and former fighter George Groves: “That kid is the best 15-year-old I’ve ever seen.”

But despite mixing with the professionals, there were still opportunities as an amateur and Itauma would go on to become the only boxer to secure a European championship gold medal with all of his wins not only coming by knockout but inside the first round, too.

He would also win gold at the world youth championships, despite having an illness throughout the tournament.

What would normally follow for an amateur boxer of such promise would be an Olympic run, but not Itauma.

“I don’t know how to word this without actually saying it,” he said, “but my family kind of needed me to turn pro if that makes sense.

“I didn’t come from a privileged background. Me and my brothers would eat mayonnaise and rice for dinner if you get what I mean. In fact there were many times when we’d be like, 'What are we having for dinner tonight?’ and there’d be nothing. We’d say, 'OK, we will have sleep for dinner.'

“I’d be losing a lot of weight. Every time I went to training I had lost a kilo or two. My coach at the time, Dan Woledge, would ask why and I’d just say, ‘I don’t have money for food.' Eventually I lost close to 25kg [55.1 pounds] at one point and that was when he stepped in and sponsored me a little bit and then Frank Warren kind of jumped in, too.”

Warren, the Hall of Fame promoter, had already signed Karol and, when it became clear the 17-year-old wanted to follow him into the paid ranks he made his move. Moses officially turned professional on his 18th birthday, December 28, 2022.

His final amateur record was 24-0 and he made his professional debut in January 2023.

It is worth nothing, too, that Itauma (13-0, 11 KOs) has needed just 26 rounds in the paid ranks to amass that record. He's had only had 37 total bouts but there are already calls for him to face Oleksandr Usyk, a veteran of 350 amateur bouts and 24 perfect outings as a professional.

Time will tell if that particular fight is too soon for Itauma, but it looks clear that Kezmarok, Slovakia, will have its first world heavyweight champion in the not-too-distant future.