After a bevy of “no thank you’s” and a long string of purse bid delays, Dan Rafael reports that Frank Sanchez and Richard Torrez Jr have finally come to terms for an IBF heavyweight eliminator. Per Rafael, the bout is “likely” to land on the undercard of Sebastian Fundora vs Keith Thurman on March 28th.
Sanchez (25-1, 18 KO) outclassed the also-unbeaten Efe Ajagba in 2021 and promptly took his foot off the gas, cruising past second-tier foes before becoming another victim of Agit Kabayel’s tummy-punching rampage nearly four years later. He’s competed just once since, mauling 18-24 Ramon Olivas Echeverria last February.
Torrez (14-0, 12 KO), a 2020 Olympic silver medalist and one of the last men standing in Top Rank’s attempted takeover of the heavyweight division, scored his biggest win to date last April with a grimy decision over fellow Olympian Guido Vianello. Despite fighting four times a year from 2022-2024, he closed out the year with just one more win, a one-round thrashing of the ludicrously outclassed Tomas Salek on Top Rank’s mismatch-laden Espinoza-Khegai show in November.
Between Sanchez’s tendency to cruise and Torrez’s habit of punching-and-clutching when his opponent doesn’t crumble, I’m not sure we’ll get a banger out of all this malarkey. I’m still glad it’s finally happening; I’m eager to see how the post-Usyk heavyweight landscape comes together.
