American heavyweight hope set for biggest test of his career.
The last time America had a world heavyweight champion was the 22nd of February, 2020, when Deontay Wilder stepped into the ring at the MGM Grand Garden Arena to defend his WBC title in a rematch against Tyson Fury.
At this point, Wilder was 42-0-1 with 41 knockouts, one of the flashiest records in recent boxing history. He had reigned as the WBC heavyweight champion since 2015, having won it over Bermane Stiverne and going the distance for the first time in his career.
In this time, Wilder had defended his title on ten consecutive occasions, and he was the favourite to do it for an eleventh. But instead, Tyson Fury bullied, dropped, and stopped him to wrestle the title right out of his hands.
When Wilder entered the ring for that fight, America had a man to call their champion of the heavyweights. Almost six years later, they have not had another man they can claim the same with.
Wilder is now 44-4-1, having failed to win the title back from Fury in their trilogy fight. That fight on the 9th of October, 2021, is the last time an American has fought for a world heavyweight title.
Since then, American fans have been scrambling for another fighter they can place their hopes in at heavyweight. At first, that fighter was Jared Anderson, but ever since being stopped by Martin Bakole, he has not looked the same and has essentially been disregarded as the heavyweight hopeful he was once considered to be.
But not to worry, for there was someone else they could turn their attention towards.
That “someone else” was Richard Torrez Jr.
A 2020 Olympic silver medallist, Torrez is 14-0 with 12 KOs. Having won his first ten fights inside the distance, his two wins to not end in a stoppage have been a disqualification over Joey Dawejko and a decision over Guido Vianello (a win that has since aged well, as the Italian has since gone on to knock out the undefeated Alexis Barriere).
And now it is being reported that a deal has been reached for Torrez to fight Cuban heavyweight contender Frank Sanchez.
Sanchez (25-1, 18 KOs) is known as ‘The Cuban Flash’ and was considered a dangerous prospect for most of his early career, having beaten the undefeated Efe Ajagba (another dangerous-looking prospect) on the Fury-Wilder 3 undercard.
In more recent times, Sanchez has suffered a stoppage loss to Agit Kabayel, but that doesn’t appear to have made anyone more eager to face him.
Ever since winning a stay-busy affair over an opponent with an 18-24 record in early February of 2025, Sanchez has been locked in a long series of final eliminators for the IBF title. This is because so many opponents have turned Sanchez down.
The names who exited negotiations include Efe Ajagba, Filip Hrgovic, Moses Itauma, Jared Anderson, Daniel Dubois, and even Richard Torrez Jr. himself (though that was due to Torrez already having a fight scheduled at the time).
It is now coming out that a second series of negotiations between Torrez and Sanchez has ended positively and that they are likely to fight on the undercard of Sebastian Fundora’s title defence against Keith Thurman on the 28th of March, per Dan Rafael’s Twitter.
It has been a very frustrating period for Frank Sanchez, but his search for a willing challenger now looks to have come to an end.
And for Richard Torrez Jr., a man who carries the weight of boxing’s largest nation on his shoulders, Sanchez will present the toughest test of his career. Will he fold like his contemporary Jared Anderson before him, or will he pass with flying colours?
America will certainly he hoping for the latter.
Breaking: Per both camps, deal has been made for Frank Sanchez-Richard Torrez Jr. IBF heavyweight final eliminator & purse bid scheduled on Tuesday is canceled. The bout is likely to take place March 28 on the undercard of the resked Fundora-Thurman PBC on Prime PPV. #boxing
— Dan Rafael (@DanRafael1) January 26, 2026
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