Moses Itauma could have been one win away from a heavyweight title fight by accepting an elimination bout against Frank Sanchez. Instead, he turned down the opportunity.

The reason? Itauma decided the best course of action was to leave his options open.

Sanchez, who is ranked third at heavyweight by the IBF, has been seeking an opponent for an elimination bout. The winner would either go on to challenge unified champion Oleksandr Usyk or, if Usyk vacates or retires, fight for the vacant belt.

Several heavyweights declined over the duration of 2025 for various reasons. Filip Hrgovic accepted another fight. Efe Ajagba was unhappy with how much he would have been paid. Daniel Dubois couldn’t reach an agreement and has moved on. Richard Torrez’s team wasn’t responsive at first; he’s now back in the mix, with the IBF giving Sanchez and Torres a deadline of January 6 to reach an agreement.

As for Itauma:

“We looked at that fight and we just thought, obviously, it was a title eliminator for the IBF, but then I would lose my rankings in the WBO, WBA and the WBC. Obviously, I'm highly ranked with all three of them,” Itauma said in an interview with iFL TV. “So my team was like, there’s no point of going in that route, dropping all these rankings – for the WBO, especially, the ones that I've been fighting for for two, two and a half years now.”

When fighters accept title fights with one sanctioning body, the others tend to drop that fighter from their rankings. That isn't usually the case with eliminator bouts, though.

Since turning down the eliminator bout, Itauma has dropped in the IBF’s rankings from fifth as of early September to 14th as of the start of December. A 21-year-old from Chatham, England, Itauma is still positioned prominently with the other organizations: first with the WBO, third with the WBA and fourth with the WBC.

As Itauma referenced, he has been paying sanctioning fees to the WBO for some time for its “Intercontinental” belt, dating back to his May 2024 victory over Ilja Mezencev and continuing on for another four bouts, according to BoxRec.

Itauma, 13-0 (11 KOs), is scheduled to fight Jermaine Franklin Jnr, 24-2 (15 KOs), in the main event at the Co-op Live in Manchester, England, on January 24. The show will stream on DAZN. Franklin is rated 11th by the WBO.

David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.