Demsey McKean wants to hand Moses Itauma his first loss on the undercard of Usyk-Fury II

Australian heavyweight Demsey McKean looks to bounce back from his lone loss when he faces Moses Itauma at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on December 21.

The fight is featured on a blockbuster card headlined by a rematch between RING Magazine heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk and number one contender Tyson Fury.

McKean, 34, from Ipswich, Queensland, will return after more than a year out of action following his 12th round loss to Filip Hrgovic at the O2 Arena in London, England in August last year.

A severe hand injury kept him out for the rest of the year and a fight scheduled for March or April never took place. Still, the six-foot-6 southpaw stayed in the gym.

“I’ve been in the gym all year, really,” said McKean (22-1, 14 knockouts) on The Ring. “I’ve been sparring, I’ve been in the gym every day, so it’s not like I’m jumping off the couch. We’ve been watching fights all year and we’ve had setbacks after setbacks, which I’m not used to, that’s for sure. But now I have a date, ready, and we have a full 10-week boot camp to hone. We are in a really good position at the moment. We have been working on strategies and are in good shape 10 weeks out. “

Slovakian-born Brit Itauma (10-0, 8 KOs) has made a splash since becoming champion early last year. The 19-year-old lefty has an aggressive, explosive style that has seen eight of his victims fall before the end of the second round. With some fans and commentators touting the incredible prospect as the future of the division, McKean will be there to prove them wrong.

“He’s got a lot of talent to burn,” McKean admitted. “He’s a crafty southpaw and he’s really quick, but he’s also really young, so he’s going to be immature, he’s going to be inexperienced, and we’re going to look to take advantage of those things.

“But he’s really good. I think he’s one of the best prospects right now in the heavyweight division. He brings his stuff, but he definitely hasn’t fought anyone in his 10 fights. In the 10 fights he had, he did not resist at all. They are happy to stay there and collect their salary. Most of them didn’t even drop a fist. It’s going to be a lot different against a southpaw who is good and will throw back punches.”

McKean is right when he says Itauma’s resume lacks depth. The most prominent name on his book is the late rival Mariusz Wach, who he faced in his last trip to London in July, stopping him twice. The 44-year-old Pole had lost four of his last six matches going back four years, although he had only been stopped once in that time. Still, it’s hard to know how much to learn from Itauma’s first win against Wach.

McKean’s fight should speak volumes for Itauma, the Queenslander who thinks it may be difficult to find quality sparring this camp.

“When I was in the UK, there was no southpaw sparring,” said McKean, who was based in Essex for a few years. “I think Moses was the only southpaw player in the UK and his gym was not far from the Matchroom Gym when I was training there. I know he dated Jordan Thompson for a while before he fought Jai Opetaia and they struggled to find southpaw sparring. That’s when I went to fight. They asked me to come back for sparring, which was not going to happen.

“There is no southpaw in the UK, so they will have to fly. But here in Australia, we have plenty. We have Jai Opetaia, he just wrestled this week but once he rests, we’ll probably get some rounds with him towards the end of camp. We’ve got Floyd Masson, Luke Modini, Kris Terzievski from Melbourne, Liam Talivaa, we’ve got another guy who’s a freshman and he’s exactly like Itauma, he likes to come forward, he’s a southpaw and he’s six-foot-three. We actually have a lot of southpaws in south east Queensland and from Melbourne we can fly up if we need them. Jackson Murray is one. There is plenty. We don’t have to look too hard to get good sparring.”

But the real story of the fight may come down to which boxer best adjusts his left-hander’s stance.

“Everybody hates southpaws and we all hate each other I’m sure,” laughed McKean. “It’s a new challenge for me too, but as I said, we have 10 weeks to prepare for this. We knew well that we were going to fight Moses for a long time now, so we were working a lot with southpaw tactics, so at least we had a good start. It would be a little different if we took the war on short notice, like four or five weeks, but we have more than enough time to be able to prepare for it.

“I consider myself a 10-round fighter and he has never gone this far. He had six rounds and that was about it. In his style, he’s a six-round fighter, and it’s hard to keep that going for more than 10 rounds.

“We’ll see how the fight goes, but I’m confident in our game plan.”