Yet another extension was granted for the Frank Sanchez-Richard Torrez IBF title eliminator.
The delay seemed to be welcomed by all parties, however, as it is believed that a few more days of talks will eventually lead to a reached agreement.
IBF officials confirmed that both sides agreed to postpone a purse bid hearing that was scheduled to take place on Tuesday. The concession was made for a fight that was ordered in early December and whose purse bid process was already delayed once before.
At this point, it’s in the IBF’s best interests to allow the respective promotional and managerial teams for both boxers to resolve this matter, given the at-length struggle to move forward with this process.
Cuba’s Sanchez is promoted by Warriors Boxing and Ural Boxing promotions, and co-managed by Mike Borao and Lupe Valencia. Torrez Jnr has been with Top Rank since signing out of the amateurs following his silver medal haul during the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The downside for Sanchez, 25-1 (18 KOs) is that he is now looking at a full year between fights by the time he next enters the ring. Unfortunately, such is the price for staying the course in hoping to specifically become the IBF’s top contender.
No fewer than five other heavyweights have previously passed on the opportunity to meet Sanchez in a final elimination contest.
Torrez, 14-0 (12 KOs) was part of that list before the IBF batted around the lineup and made its way back to the unbeaten heavyweight from Tulare, California. He accepted the invitation to enter negotiations shortly after his 1st round knockout of Poland’s Tomas Salek on November 15 in San Luis Potosi, Mexico.
The fight was just the second for Torrez in 2025, his least productive campaign since turning pro in 2022.
Sanchez’s year was even less active. He fought just once in the year, a 3rd round knockout of overmatched Ramon Olivas Echeverria last February 22 in Tijuana.
It came following a one-fight campaign in 2024, which saw Sanchez suffer his first defeat. He was stopped in the 7th round by Agit Kabayel in their May 2024 WBC interim heavyweight title fight in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The 10-month ring absence to close out 2025 was largely due to Sanchez’s team wading through the IBF elimination process. During that time, he watched the likes of Filip Hrgovic, former IBF heavyweight titlist Daniel Dubois, Moses Itauma, past opponent Efe Ajagba and Torrez all decline to move forward for a variety of reasons.
Ajagba was the worst offender of the lot. Their ordered bout – which would have been a rematch to their October 2021 meeting won by Sanchez via decision – went all the way to a purse bid hearing, won by Sampson Lewkowicz’s Sampson Boxing, LLC. However, Ajagba was dissatisfied with his share of the purse and bowed out of the fight.
Hrgovic and Dubois dragged matters along to their separately scheduled purse bid hearings before deciding to pursue other opportunities. Hrgovic returned to the ring in August, while Dubois has yet to fight – nor has anything scheduled – since his repeat knockout loss to Oleksandr Usyk in their July 19 undisputed championship in London.
Itauma’s team declined to ever move forward with talks. At the time, he was due to fight last December, before the show was canceled. The unbeaten heavyweight contender is now slated to face Jermaine Franklin on January 24.
Should the ordered Sanchez-Torrez matchup become a reality, the eventual winner will become one of three mandatory challengers in-waiting to end Usyk’s unified title reign.
The unbeaten Ukrainian southpaw already vacated the WBO title in lieu of signing on for an ordered title consolidation bout with Fabio Wardley. However, the WBC and WBA mandatories are not only overdue, but ahead of the IBF in the pecking order.
Germany’s Kabayel is still the WBC interim heavyweight titlist, and risks the secondary belt against Damian Knyba this Saturday in Oberhausen, Germany. Murat Gassiev is the WBA “Regular” heavyweight titlist, having dethroned Kubrat Pulev last month in Dubai.
