Frank Sanchez is back at the negotiating table.
BoxingScene has confirmed that the IBF has formally ordered a heavyweight title eliminator between Cuba’s Sanchez and California’s Richard Torrez Jnr. The two sides will have until December 17 to reach terms, though the process has proven problematic for much of the year.
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.
IBF officials were in a position to move forward with the eliminator once Torrez submitted in writing his willingness to participate in the ordered contest. It was an improvement from his previous involvement in this ordeal, when Torrez’s team never responded to an earlier invitation from the sanctioning body.
Torrez, 14-0 (12 KOs), was already scheduled at the time to appear on a November 15 event co-promoted by Top Rank and Zanfer Boxing in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. It served as just the second fight of the year for the 26-year-old southpaw from Tulare, California, who earned a 1st round, injury stoppage of Poland’s Tomas Salek.
The bout came nine months after Torrez’s lone other appearance of the year, a 10-round, unanimous decision over Guido Vianello on April 5 in Las Vegas. It marked the first time that Torrez was forced to go to the scorecards as a pro. His two fights in 2025 marked his least active campaign since turning pro in 2022, having fought exactly four times in each of the past three years.
Still, his year was a hell of a lot more productive than the heavyweight he could potentially face next.
Sanchez, 25-1 (18 KOs), has literally waited all year to land a willing opponent in a bid to become the IBF mandatory challenger. Worse, he’s fought just once since a May 2024 stoppage defeat to Agit Kabayel in their WBC interim heavyweight title fight. His lone bout in that period came in a walkover knockout victory on February 22 in Tijuana, Mexico.
The rest of the year was spent watching the likes of Moses Itauma, Filip Hrgovic, Efe Ajagba and – most recently – former IBF titlist Daniel Dubois all decline on the chance to face Sanchez.
Torrez is one of at least five heavyweights who were in the mix at some point, only to ultimately decline to move forward with the process.
The latest step comes more than a week after former IBF heavyweight titlist Daniel Dubois, 22-3 (21 KOs), was withdrawn from the ordered match on the morning of a purse bid hearing. The session was already delayed by seven days at the request of Dubois and Queensberry Promotions, only to bail altogether.
Moses Itauma, Filip Hrgovic and Efe Ajagba – a former Sanchez opponent – have also declined to go the distance during these proceedings.
A rematch with Ajagba was actually set to move forward after Sampson Lewkowicz’s Sampson Boxing won a purse bid to secure promotional rights. However, the 2016 Nigerian Olympian was disappointed with his share of the purse and opted to bow out of their targeted rematch.
Sanchez previously defeated Ajagba by 10-round, unanimous decision in their October 2021 meeting of unbeaten heavyweights.
Hrgovic and Dubois both opted to wait until their separately ordered fights with Sanchez went to a purse bid hearing before they withdrew from the process.
In the event that Sanchez-Torrez sees the light of day, the eventual winner will become the sanctioning body’s mandatory challenger to unified champ Oleksandr Usyk, 24-0 (15 KOs). Fabio Wardley was recently named the WBO full champion from his previous interim title status after Usyk declined to move forward with an ordered title consolidation match.
Usyk still holds the WBA “Super”, WBC and IBF belts. Kabayel remains the recognized WBC interim titlist, while Kubrat Pulev possesses a secondary version of the WBA title, which he will defend against former unified cruiserweight titlist Murat Gassiev on December 12 in Dubai.
