Dillian Whyte Defends Trainer Buddy McGirt’s Old-School Approach to Moses Itauma Fight Without Watching Tape

By Michael Collins - 08/12/2025 - Comments

Dillian Whyte says it’s not a big deal that his trainer Buddy McGirt didn’t watch tape on his opponent, Moses Itauma, to come up with a game plan for their DAZN PPV fight on Saturday night in Riyadh.

McGirt’s Old-School Training Method

Whyte (31-3, 23 KOs) says that McGirt didn’t have the benefit of studying film on his opponents during his career. He still did very well, capturing two division world titles.

Itauma (12-0, 10 KOs) has made a big deal about Buddy not studying his fights, and he feels that he doesn’t care because he’s not the one taking the shots. In reality, McGirt doesn’t need to do that to prepare his fighters. For his style, he’ll have learned all he needs to know in the opening seconds because Itauma has a simple style that many fighters use.

Whyte Defends Trainer’s Strategy

“Buddy was born in 1920. Back then, there was no video, no VCR. Buddy’s coaches taught him differently from the new guys. He didn’t get to watch this guy or that guy,” said Dillian Whyte to the Ring Magazine channel, discussing why his trainer, Buddy McGirt, chose not to study tape of Moses Itauma’s fights.

Whyte brings up a good point. McGirt didn’t have the benefit of watching video during his own career to study his opponents. So, if he or his coach didn’t see his opponent’s past fights, they trained and made adaptations during each round. That approach works well because it allows for more flexibility than someone who is following a preset plan based on what they saw in a video study.

“That’s the way he was taught, and he did good with that. When you pay too much attention on one thing [you saw from watching video], you forget what you need to be working on. Watching and analyzing are good and bad. Imagine, I come out like a lunatic,” said Whyte.

McGirt’s In-Fight Adaptability

It doesn’t matter that McGirt hasn’t studied Moses Itauma’s past fights because his style is a simple one. He relies on his hand speed and power to throw single shots. He always retreats several feet when attacked, and suddenly stops to throw if his opponents chase him. It’s always the same thing from Itauma.

Buddy will quickly analyze and figure out Itauma’s style in the first 30 seconds of the fight on Saturday because he’ll have already shown his entire game by that point. Whyte has seen how Itauma fights.

So, he doesn’t need McGirt to tell him the approach that he’ll be using. But even if he didn’t watch his fights, he’d figure it out quickly on his own and make adaptations in the opening round..

Dillian has fought more complicated fighters during his career, such as Anthony Joshua, Alexander Povetkin, and Oscar Rivas. Itauma is more of a one-trick pony, and he’s been able to get away with that because he’s been matched by Queensberry against lesser opponents up until now.


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Last Updated on 08/12/2025