None of Itauma’s last nine opponents have made it beyond the second round and the way he has stormed through the heavyweight division has led to him most regularly being compared to Mike Tyson.

Tyson was just 20 years old when he knocked out Trevor Berbick to become the WBC champion and went on to unify the division before his 22nd birthday.

Itauma (13-0, 11 KOs) acknowledges and respects Tyson’s achievements but isn’t modelling himself on the heavyweight legend.

He worked alongside Anthony Joshua during the time they shared spent training together at the Ben Davison Performance Center and sparred Tyson Fury ahead of his fights with Oleksandr Usyk.

As well as picking up tips inside the ring, Itauma has been watching and listening to the way the former champions act outside of it.

“I've always said that my blessing from being in Tyson Fury's camp was being able to speak to him and spending time around him, picking up on certain things,” he told The Ring ahead of his fight with Jermaine Franklin (24-2, 15 KOs) which takes place at Manchester’s Co-op Live Arena on Saturday. The event will be streamed by DAZN.

“When I went to train with him in Malta and in Saudi Arabia, I had conversations that I needed to have and it's like when I'm obviously rubbing shoulders with AJ and X, Y or Z, I think that's more of a bigger blessing.

“Like I said, with Mike Tyson, I can appreciate the career he's had but that doesn't mean I need to be like him because I am my own man.”

Although Fury and Joshua are polar opposites in terms of the way they fight, they way they carry themselves and the way they live, both have proven that they have what it takes to reach the pinnacle of heavyweight boxing.

Itauma looks, acts and talks as if he is older than his 21 years but despite his rapid rise, he hasn’t fallen into the trap of believing that he knows best.

“The biggest lesson I've learned from Tyson Fury would probably be that to have success, you need to have a little bit of not caring. If you care too much, then you might just miss it,” he said. “From AJ, I would probably say [it's that] you’re a citizen of the world. Don't tie yourself down to one entity.”