Richard Torrez Jnr is far along enough in his career that he can, and should, begin considering some of the opponents and potential fights at or near the top of the heavyweight division.
Yet he’s young enough to still pinch himself when he does.
Torrez, 13-0 (11 KOs), will take on the little-known Tomas Salek on Saturday in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, in a venue, Arena Coliseo, that typically puts on lucha libre shows, on a network – ESPN Knock Out – that few are aware how to access. But he’s far closer to the biggest fights in boxing’s glamor division than any of those circumstances suggest.
He was reminded of it when Guido Vianello – the man Torrez bested in a 10-round unanimous decision in April – recently stopped prospect Alexis Barriere and called out two-time former unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua.
“You know, it's really weird because I still kind of idolize those guys,” Torrez, a 26-year-old southpaw from Tulare, California, recently told BoxingScene. “Like, whoa, that’s Anthony Joshua, that’s crazy. Or [Oleksandr] Usyk. These guys are people I looked at growing up. And it’s so crazy to me that right now I’m ranked No. 4 in the world. Like, it really is. It’s kind of baffling to me, and it’s such an honor.”
Despite the residual awe – “I do kind of fanboy a little bit,” he admitted – Torrez says he believes he has arrived at the gates of boxing’s top heavyweight tier and welcomes the opportunity to test himself against the division’s best in what he hopes will be the near future. His rankings across the alphabet organizations – No. 4 in the IBF and No. 11 in the WBC and WBO – back him up.
“I am super-confident in my abilities, and I know I’m here for a reason. I’m an Olympic medalist,” said Torrez, who won silver at the 2020 Tokyo Games. “I’ve kind of shown my stripes a little bit, and I’m ready to show the world that I’m ready to be a name – a boxing name, a household name – and I think within the next year or so, I’ll be able to do so.”
It’s a scenario Torrez has clearly given some thought to, if only because he has a specific match-up in mind and has seemingly taken the measure of it from all angles.
“One of the guys I’ve been kind of trying to throw my hat in the ring for is Moses Ituama,” he said. “I think that he has been showing and proving himself in and out of the ring.”
Torrez sees another young southpaw in the 20-year-old Itauma, with a 13-0 (11 KOs) record identical to his own, and imagines the possibilities. Itauma, coming off a first-round destruction of Dillian Whyte in August, is ranked No. 1 by two sanctioning bodies and gunning for the division’s established stars – yet he was forced to settle for Jermaine Franklin Jnr in January. Might he entertain the idea of a Torrez fight next?
“I'm a smaller lefty that throws a lot and is in shape and conditioned,” Torrez said. “I think that that'd be a great fight. … Two English-speaking guys, we could cross the pond and make some pretty big headlines in any country we go to. That would be something I'm really looking forward to.”
Jason Langendorf is the former Boxing Editor of ESPN.com, was a contributor to Ringside Seat and the Queensberry Rules, and has written about boxing for Vice, The Guardian, Chicago Sun-Times and other publications. A member of the Boxing Writers Association of America, he can be found at LinkedIn and followed on X and Bluesky.
