Frank Sanchez will face unbeaten Richard Torrez Jr in an IBF final eliminator on Saturday, with the winner becoming the mandatory challenger for the IBF belt held by unified champion Oleksandr Usyk.
At a press conference on Thursday Sanchez framed the fight as a step back to the peak of his career, saying, “I just want to get back to where I belong.” He added his longer aim in blunt terms: “Get back to my spot and be the first Cuban heavyweight champion.”
The stakes are concrete. Torrez arrives with a 14-0 record and 12 knockouts, coming off wins over Guido Vianello and Tomas Salek. Sanchez has one loss on his professional record — a defeat to Agit Kabayel in 2024 — and rebounded with a stoppage win over Ramon Olivas Echeverria. Sanchez called Torrez “He’s a great boxer,” but immediately added, “But I’m the more technical boxer, and I will show that on Saturday.”
Promoter Mike Borao warned that the matchup is no easy path. “Frank is facing a top, undefeated, relentless southpaw in Torrez - an opponent that no one is looking past,” he said, and he tied the immediate objective to a clearer prize: “Frank's focus is on getting past Torrez on May 23,” Borao said, adding that only after that can longer ambitions be considered. Borao also raised the possibility of a Usyk matchup if Sanchez impresses: “That said, I think Usyk would welcome a fight with Frank, particularly with an impressive win. After all, Usyk has six wins over Fury, Joshua, and Dubois, and he's starting to run out of opponents!”
Context matters here. The IBF final eliminator is a simple mechanic: the winner moves into position as the mandatory challenger for the IBF title, currently in Usyk's possession. For Sanchez, who has spoken repeatedly of becoming the first Cuban heavyweight champion, Saturday is therefore both an immediate fight and a gate to the larger goal he kept returning to at the podium.
There is a tangible tension under those goals. Sanchez's only professional loss came in 2024 while he was hampered by a knee injury, and Torrez represents an opponent with heavy finishing power and an unblemished record. Borao said Sanchez has undertaken stringent preparations under Eddy Reynoso, but on paper the matchup asks whether technique and recovery are enough to blunt Torrez's unbeaten trajectory and knockout rate.
The fight also puts into relief competing narratives. Sanchez sells the bout as a reclamation — “I just want to get back to where I belong” — and insists his style will outpoint a feared southpaw. Torrez's dossier argues otherwise: 12 stoppages in 14 wins and recent victories over Vianello and Salek suggest a fighter on an upward surge who will not be content to play substrate to Sanchez's technical argument.
What follows Saturday is straightforward and consequential. A Sanchez victory makes him the IBF mandatory challenger and hands his team a clear commercial and sporting claim to press for a fight with Usyk. A defeat leaves Sanchez orbiting the same conversation he entered with his loss in 2024, only with different questions about his knee, his adjustments under Reynoso and whether the promise of becoming the first Cuban heavyweight champion can still be fulfilled.
For now the story closes where it began: Sanchez, on Thursday, promising to return. If he wins on May 23 he will not merely claim a belt position — he will force a reckoning with Usyk's camp and test whether that long-stated ambition can finally be matched by the result in the ring.
