The O2, London · DAZN
9 days to go
Guido Vianello vs Moses Jolly
14–3–1 · 12 KOs 12–0 · 8 KOs
The biggest night of Moses Jolly’s career. He boxes Guido “The Gladiator” Vianello, a Rio Olympian ranked in the top fifteen by two governing bodies, on the biggest heavyweight card of the British year.
- Date
- Saturday 29 August 2026
- Venue
- The O2, London
- Watch
- DAZN
- Promoter
- Queensberry (Frank Warren)
- Top of the bill
- Moses Itauma vs Filip Hrgovic, for the vacant IBF World Heavyweight Championship
3
Three amateur fights
That is all it took. Most heavyweights who reach a bill like this have a hundred bouts in the vest behind them. Moses had three, turned professional, and has been learning in front of paying crowds ever since — winning every single time.
Twelve fights later he is unbeaten, he is the Commonwealth International champion, and he is boxing at The O2 under a world title. Some fighters need a decade of schooling to arrive. Moses thought his way there.
The strategic mind is what sets him apart, and it has done from the outset — the planning, the studying, the hours nobody sees. And when the work is done and the walk begins, he finds his fortitude in prayer. His faith in Jesus is where the calm comes from.
Side by side
Tale of the tape
| Measure | Guido Vianello “The Gladiator” | Moses Jolly “The Native” |
|---|---|---|
| Professional record | 14–3–1 | 12–0 |
| Fights | 18 | 12 |
| Wins inside the distance | 12 | 8 |
| Knockout rate | 67% | 67% |
| Age | 32 | 30 |
| Height | 6ft 6in (198cm) | 6ft 6in |
| Stance | Orthodox | Southpaw |
| Amateur background | Rio 2016 Olympian, super-heavyweight; European Union Championships silver, Sofia 2014 | 3 bouts |
| World ranking | No. 12 IBF, No. 14 WBC | Not ranked by the IBF or WBC |
| Current title | WBC Continental Americas heavyweight | Commonwealth International Heavyweight Champion |
| Last fight | Stopped Alexis Barriere in the fifth, 11 October 2025 | Won on points over eight rounds v Will Howe, Neath Sports Centre, 23 May 2026 |
| Promoter | Queensberry (signed July 2026) | Queensberry |
| Home | Rome, Italy | Swansea, Wales |
Records correct at 20 August 2026. Note the stance row: southpaw against orthodox is an awkward puzzle for any fighter, and it is Moses who sets it.
In his own words
He asked for this
Fighters talk about wanting the hard nights. Moses went and took one. Writing on his own page before the fight, he put it plainly:
Here I get to really challenge myself and test my skill set against world ranked opponents. Thank you all who have supported up until this moment.
Moses Jolly, on his own page before the fight
There is no hedging in that, and there is none in him. He has never made a secret of where this is going:
I would love to be in the position to fight for World titles, become Undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World and set a new record for Wales in being their first heavyweight champion.
Moses Jolly
Nights like this are how a fighter gets there. Queensberry did not put him on a world-title bill at The O2 to make up the numbers. They put him there because of what he did in Neath in May, and because of what they think he becomes next.
What he brings
The tools
A jab that has been called the best in forty years
It is the first thing anyone who has watched him mentions, and the man who says it loudest has spent four decades in the sport and has no reason to flatter anybody.
He has one of the best jabs I have ever seen, and I have been in boxing for 40 years.
Mickey Helliet, manager
His team describe a jab that rattles an opponent so hard it opens up everything behind it. At six foot six, with the reach that comes with it, that shot dictates where a fight happens. Plenty of good heavyweights have built entire careers on less.
Feet that do not belong to a heavyweight
This is the part people are not ready for. He is 6ft 6in and he moves like a middleweight — balance, angles, and footwork usually found several divisions down. David John encouraged him early to express himself and to bring his love of dance into the ring with him, and it shows. Watchers have reached for comparisons as bold as Sugar Ray Robinson to describe how he glides.
Against a big man who wants to plant his feet and time you, movement like that is not decoration. It is the whole problem.
Good enough to prepare a man for Usyk
Rico Verhoeven — the Dutch heavyweight who ruled Glory kickboxing for a decade — brought Moses into camp as a sparring partner while preparing for Oleksandr Usyk. Talking it through with Joe Rogan afterwards, he did not hedge:
We started off with first 6 with the big guy, Moses Jolie, and an amazing boxer, but he’s big, he’s big, he’s heavy. He’s not an Usyk. He’s like twice as big as Usyk, but he’s a southpaw, so he has that power and we could really compete.
Rico Verhoeven, JRE MMA Show #183
The transcript spells it “Jolie”. It is him.
Read that again. An elite heavyweight, building a camp for the best technical heavyweight of the era, picked a lad from Townhill to work with — and called him an amazing boxer on the biggest podcast in the world.
Southpaw, and that is a problem to solve
Vianello is orthodox. Moses is not. Southpaws are awkward by design: the lead hands clash, the angles invert, and the straight left arrives down a lane an orthodox fighter spends his whole career not looking down. It is why southpaw sparring is hunted out before a camp, and why Verhoeven wanted him in the first place.
Power he has not needed to lean on
Eight of his twelve wins have come inside the distance. He carries genuine heavyweight power in both hands, and he has never had to gamble on it — which is its own kind of compliment. He wins by boxing, and the knockout arrives when it arrives.
Neath proved he can do it long
The Commonwealth International title was not handed to him. He went eight hard rounds with a fighter who had beaten good men to get that belt, and he out-boxed him from first bell to last — moving, landing, controlling the range, never letting it become the fight his opponent wanted. That is not a puncher getting lucky. That is a boxer running a night on his own terms.
And he is fresh
Twelve professional fights is not many miles. There is no wear on him, no long amateur career in the legs, and at thirty he is two years younger than the man across from him. Everything he knows he learned in a real ring with David John in the corner — and it has not been beaten out of him by anyone yet.
The other corner
Guido Vianello
No one should pretend this is a soft night, and nobody at the gym wants it to be. Vianello is a serious heavyweight and a serious man. He boxed for Italy at the Rio Olympics, took silver at the European Union Championships in Sofia, and has built a professional career on real opposition. He stopped Arslanbek Makhmudov, who has since shared a ring with Tyson Fury, and he has been in with Richard Torrez Jr, Efe Ajagba and Jonathan Rice. The IBF rank him twelfth and the WBC fourteenth. He is 6ft 6in, he can punch, and he arrives off a knockout.
That is exactly the point. Beating a ranked contender with an Olympic background, on a world-title bill, in front of a global audience, is not the same as beating anybody else. This is the sort of name that changes what a career looks like afterwards.
Moses has never once suggested he needs an easier night. He asked to be tested against world-ranked opposition, and on 29 August he gets it.
Saturday 29 August 2026 · The O2
The full card
-
Headline
Moses Itauma 14–0, 12 KOs v Filip Hrgovic 20–1, 15 KOs
Vacant IBF World Heavyweight Championship
-
Co-feature
Sam Noakes 18–1, 16 KOs v Denys Berinchyk 19–1, 9 KOs
Lightweight
-
Our fight
Guido Vianello 14–3–1, 12 KOs v Moses Jolly 12–0, 8 KOs
Heavyweight
-
Constantin Ursu 15–0 v Ben Vaughan 12–2
British and Commonwealth welterweight titles
-
Aloys Youmbi 11–1 v Mike Perez 32–3–1
Cruiserweight
-
Tony Curtis 13–1 v Imad Naseeb 8–0
Super flyweight
-
Abnor Jashari 9–0 v Numan Hussain 8–1–2
Super featherweight
Bout order on the night is set by the promoter and cards can change.
Where to watch
The card is broadcast on DAZN. It is a subscription service — check their own listings for the start time and for what is shown live.
Total Body Fitness is his home club. This is the room he trains in, and David John is the coach who has taken him from three amateur fights to a heavyweight bout at The O2.
Moses posts fight news and camp footage on his own page: Moses Jolly on Facebook.
Our fighter, our gym
On 29 August he is at The O2 on a world title bill. The rest of the year he is at Unit 24, Crofty Industrial Estate, Crofty — the same two rings, the same bag floor, the same coach. Anyone can train in that room.