The team surrounding Moses Itauma has narrowed down their opponent search for his targeted December return.
It will not include Frank Sanchez – nor the opportunity to become the IBF heavyweight mandatory challenger.
BoxingScene has confirmed that the IBF has moved on in its struggles to secure a willing opponent to face Sanchez in the sanctioning body’s proposed final elimination contest. The need for a new challenger arose after Itauma’s (ranked No. 5 by the IBF) team withdrew the unbeaten heavyweight’s name from consideration.
Cuba’s Sanchez (No. 4) remains the highest-ranked available contender to fight for the right to become the IBF number one contender.
England’s Derek Chisora is rated two spots higher but is – ironically – due to appear on the same December show that will house Itauma’s next fight. It is believed that Chisora’s appearance will mark the final bout of his near 19-year career.
Typical practice by the IBF calls for contenders to accept an invitation to enter negotiations for a proposed matchup. This is opposed to alternatively ordering fights that have little to no chance to materialize.
In that vein, Richard Torrez Jnr, 13-0 (11 KOs), ranked sixth, is next in line for the fight, should his team accept. BoxingScene has confirmed that his team – including Top Rank and Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum – have been contacted and have three days from the time of the invitation to agree to enter talks with Sanchez, 25-1 (18 KOs).
Torrez’s team is currently considering the proposal but has yet to respond one way or another to the IBF. BoxingScene’s Lance Pugmire previously reported the possibility of Torrez landing on a November 15 show headlined by WBO featherweight titlist Rafael Espinoza in San Luis Potosi, Mexico.
Beyond that, the cupboard is relatively bare for Torrez and other fighters under the Top Rank banner. The company continues to explore a new televised/streaming deal after its eight-year output deal with ESPN expired earlier this summer.
Sanchez was previously due to next face Efe Ajagba (ranked third by the IBF) in what would have been a rematch to their October 2021 meeting. Sampson Lewkowicz, proud founder of Sampson Boxing, LLC, claimed promotional rights to the contest, but Ajagba was disappointed with his end of the purse split and opted to move on from the opportunity.
Sanchez defeated Ajagba via unanimous decision on the Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder III undercard in Las Vegas.
The win didn’t bring him any closer to challenging for the main crown. Sanchez has fought just seven times in the four years that have transpired, including a May 2024 technical knockout defeat to Agit Kabayel in their WBC interim title fight.
The setback remains Sanchez’s lone blemish. He’s been in just one fight since that bout: a confidence-restoring mismatch on February 22 in Tijuana, where he claimed a third-round knockout.
Sanchez was then stuck in a holding pattern when the IBF ordered him to next face Croatia’s Filip Hrgovic, 18-1 (14 KOs). The matchup was put in play in April, but talks never advanced and the matter was sent to a purse bid hearing.
The session was twice delayed and canceled outright, once Hrgovic instead agreed to next face David Adeleye, 14-1 (13 KOs), whom he defeated on August 16 in Riyadh.
Oddly enough, Adeleye is a finalist to land a shot at Itauma in December, according to Ring Magazine.
If Torrez accepts the offer, the IBF will then assign a negotiation period, which will require both sides to either reach a deal or see the matter head to a purse bid hearing. Should his team decline to move forward with the fight, the IBF will then move on to the next highest-ranked available contender.
The extraordinary efforts to proceed in a fight nobody wants is to declare an IBF mandatory challenger to current undisputed heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk, 24-0 (15 KOs). However, there is a wait to land that shot. The WBO plans to order Usyk to next face the winner of the October 25 Joseph Parker-Fabio Wardley clash in London, England.
