Heavyweight showdown has been postponed.
Since Deontay Wilder lost his rematch to Tyson Fury in 2020, there has not been a single heavyweight world champion from the United States.
In fact, Wilder’s trilogy with Fury is the last time an American even fought for a major heavyweight title, with all the belts being contested between Ukraine and the United Kingdom since then.
Historically, the late 2000s and onwards has been an anomaly. Whether it was the comparatively limited era of the 1950s or the more recent era of the 1980s, Americans made up the majority of the division.
That has not been the case now for a number of years.
Everyone can name Mike Tyson, Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Joe Frazier, Sonny Liston, Larry Holmes, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, and the rest. All of them are legendary 200+-pound names.
But from Shannon Briggs winning the WBO title against Siarhei Liakhovich in 2006, there would not be another heavyweight from the United States to win a world title until Deontay Wilder defeated Bermane Stiverne to win the WBC belt in 2015.
Since then, Charles Martin beat Vyacheslav Glazkov to win the vacant IBF title in 2016 and Andy Ruiz Jr. pulled off a shocker against Anthony Joshua to win the unified crown in 2019.
Not only are neither Ruiz nor Martin champions anymore, but they are not even ranked within the top 15. America’s next hope in Jared Anderson was obliterated by Martin Bakole, and their sights have had to shift elsewhere.
Richard Torrez Jr. (14-0, 12 KOs) has been considered the U.S.’s next hope since then, and he was due a big step-up against Frank Sanchez (25-1 (1), 18 KOs) on the Sebastian Fundora vs. Keith Thurman undercard on the 28th of March.
Sadly, though, the fight has now been postponed due to Sanchez suffering from inflammation in his surgically repaired right knee.
Sanchez will be unable to train for several weeks, and his fight with Torrez is looking to be rescheduled in May.
Frank Sanchez vs Richard Torrez Jr is postponed and won’t take place on the Sebastian Fundora vs Keith Thurman card on March 28th as Sanchez is dealing with inflammation in his surgically repaired right knee, sources tell The Ring’s @MikeCoppinger.
Sanchez won’t be able to train… pic.twitter.com/R3yEgJzPQl
— Ring Magazine (@ringmagazine) March 11, 2026
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