There is still time for the teams representing Frank Sanchez and Richard Torrez Jnr to reach a deal.
It just hasn’t come on a timeline agreeable with the sanctioning body who ordered their fight.
BoxingScene has confirmed that the abovementioned IBF-ordered heavyweight title eliminator will head to a January 22 purse bid hearing. The development comes less than a week after all involved parties were granted an extension in hopes of coming to an agreement.
Instead, the proposed matchup will be made available to all IBF-registered promoters.
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.
There was discussion at one point about the fight landing on the February 21 Mario Barrios-Ryan Garcia card in Las Vegas, Nevada. At the time, it was believed that the Barrios-Garcia fight would headline a Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) on Prime Video pay-per-view event.
However, that dynamic drastically changed when Turki Alalshikh obtained the rights to the WBC welterweight title fight, which will now headline a Ring Magazine show on the same date.
Sanchez’s handlers have a relationship with Alalshikh and Riyadh Season, as the Cuban heavyweight has twice fought in Riyadh. Therefore, placement on the card is not yet out of the question. However, that decision would have to be made prior to the January 22 purse bid.
Cuba’s Sanchez, 25-1 (18 KOs), has not fought anywhere at all since last February in a confidence-restoring bout in Tijuana, Mexico. It came nine months after his lone career defeat, a seventh-round knockout to Agit Kabayel in the May 2024 WBC interim title fight in Riyadh.
Torrez, 14-0 (12 KOs), is coming off a first-round stoppage win over Tomas Salek on November 15 in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. The show was the closest to a full-fledged production from Top Rank since the end of its seven-year deal with ESPN last July. While not a Top Rank card outright, the event was loaded with several fighters under the Vegas-based promotional outfit.
The fight itself was the reason why Torrez previously had to pass on this very opportunity. He was one of five heavyweights offered the chance to face Sanchez, in a process that dates back to last April.
With the win, Torrez re-entered the queue at a time when Filip Hrgovic, Moses Itauma, Efe Ajagba and former IBF heavyweight titlist Daniel Dubois all declined to move forward.
Sanchez-Torrez was ordered in December, with multiple extensions granted both during the negotiation period and the purse bid process. The time has now come to settle this matter and crown an IBF mandatory for unified heavyweight titlist Oleksandr Usyk, 24-0 (15 KOs).
