Frank Sanchez will wait out yet another purse bid hearing.
BoxingScene has confirmed that the IBF has scheduled a November 13 session to determine promotional rights for the ordered heavyweight title eliminator between Sanchez and Daniel Dubois. The development came about after the October 22 deadline passed without a deal reached between parties.
For now, London’s Dubois, 22-3 (21 KOs) – a former IBF heavyweight titlist - hasn’t yet bailed on the process. It’s a change of pace for Cuba’s Sanchez, 25-1 (18 KOs) who has wasted nearly all of 2025 watching one ordered opponent after another head in a different direction.
Dubois entered the mix after unbeaten heavyweights Moses Itauma and Richard Torrez Jnr both declined offers presented by the IBF to enter negotiations with Sanchez.
It was a bold move by the Brit, who is coming off a repeat knockout loss to Oleksandr Usyk in their July 19 rematch at Wembley Stadium. The setback ended Dubois’s year-long stay as IBF titleholder, while Ukraine’s Usyk, 24-0 (15 KOs) became a two-time undisputed heavyweight champion with the win.
Dubois claimed the IBF interim title in an eighth-round stoppage of unbeaten Filip Hrgovic last June 1 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He was elevated in status after Usyk agreed that the full version of the belt should be at stake for Dubois’ scheduled clash with countryman and former two-time unified titlist Anthony Joshua last September.
Their celebrated all-UK title fight saw Dubois slaughter Joshua inside of five rounds to validate his title reign.
The idea behind an ordered Sanchez-Dubois clash is to establish a new IBF mandatory. However, there could be a wait – if Usyk even looks in this direction.
Next up in the rotation is the WBO, who has already summoned Usyk to enter talks with Fabio Wardley who claimed the sanctioning body’s interim title in an upset, come-from-behind stoppage of New Zealand’s Joseph Parker. Their October 25 clash came with the assurance that Usyk would be ordered to next face the winner.
Should Usyk decline to move forward with the fight, he will be relieved of the WBO title. It would then have to be determined between the WBA and WBC – both of whom presently have secondary titleholders – who is next in line, since the IBF mandatory was enforced last year.
Either way, Dubois could position himself for either a trilogy clash with Usyk or a shot at a potentially vacant IBF belt, should he defeat Sanchez.
On the other side of the equation, Sanchez aims to enter his first full title fight.
The closest he’s come to this stage was in a May 2024 stoppage defeat to Agit Kabayel for the WBC interim heavyweight title. Just one fight has followed, a 2nd round knockout over a walkover opponent in Tijuana, Mexico.
Sanchez was previously due to next face Efe Ajagba in what would have been a rematch to their October 2021 meeting. Sampson Lewkowicz’s Sampson Boxing won a prior purse bid, but Ajagba declined to move forward with the fight and the opportunity to avenge an October 2021 defeat.
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.
Torrez passed to instead fight on November 15 in Mexico. Itauma was previously due to appear atop a December 13 Queensberry Promotions card that is now in shambles.
For now, Sanchez will hold his breath and hope for the best come purse bid time.
