Undefeated heavyweight Richard Torrez Jr.’s IBF heavyweight title eliminator against Frank Sanchez on March 28 is off after Sanchez suffered an injury, sources close to the situation told ESPN on Wednesday.
Torrez Jr. (14-0, 12 KOs) was set to face Sanchez (27-1, 18 KOs with 1 No Contest) in the PPV opener of Sebastian Fundora’s WBC junior middleweight title defense against Keith Thurman at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. However, Cuba’s Sanchez has been forced out of the fight with a knee injury. Sources tell ESPN that inflammation in Sanchez’s surgically repaired right knee will force the bout to be rescheduled for a later date.
Torrez Jr. and Sanchez are ESPN’s No. 9 and 10 ranked heavyweights, respectively. The winner would have become the mandatory challenger for Oleksandr Usyk, who currently holds the IBF, WBC and WBA titles.
Usyk will put the WBC title on the line against kickboxer Rico Verhoeven on May 23 at the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt. Usyk recently stated that he had three fights left before he calls it a career and the winner of Torrez and Sanchez were nowhere to be found on his list.
“Listen, Rico [Verhoeven] this is first. Second, it’s who wins, [WBO champion Fabio] Wardley or [Daniel] Dubois and third fight, it’s my friend, greedy belly Tyson Fury,” Usyk told Inside the Ring.
Torrez Jr. is coming off a stoppage win against Tomas Salek last November while Sanchez beat Ramon Olivas Echeverria by third round TKO in February.
