The respective teams for Efe Ajagba and Frank Sanchez will have an additional week to come to terms.
BoxingScene has confirmed that the IBF has postponed a previously scheduled purse bid hearing by one week to August 12 for the abovementioned heavyweight title eliminator. A hearing was originally due to take place on Tuesday but has been pushed back per request from both camps.
The pairing was first ordered in June, in an effort to determine the next IBF mandatory challenger to Oleksandr Usyk, 24-0 (15 KOs), the current undisputed champion. The involved parties failed to reach an agreement in time, at which point the matter was sent to a purse bid hearing.
A deal can still be reached, though it is believed that the matter will go the distance and ultimately to the highest bidder.
Ajagba, 20-1-1 (14 KOs)—a 2016 Olympian for Nigeria now based in the greater Houston, Texas area—is the IBF’s number three contender. He is one spot ahead of the number four ranked Sanchez, 25-1 (18 KOs), a Miami-based Cuban who is guided by Eddy Reynoso.
The number one IBF slot is vacant and can only be filled by winning a final elimination contest.
The bout will represent a rematch to their October 2021 meeting, won by Sanchez via ten-round, unanimous decision. Both heavyweights were unbeaten at the time, and the fight was prominently placed on a Pay-Per-View undercard topped by the epic Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder trilogy clash.
Sanchez added four more wins after that night, all via knockout. It led to WBC title eliminator against Agit Kabayel, which took place in supporting capacity to Usyk-Fury I last May 18 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Sanchez suffered his lone career defeat, via seventh-round stoppage in a bout where he wore a supportive brace to protect his previously injured knee.
Just one bout has followed for Sanchez, a third-round knockout on February 22 in Tijuana, Mexico. The confidence-restoring matchup was more of an opportunity to test drive his knee and confirm that he is back at full health.
Sanchez’s handlers hoped to get him back in the ring soon thereafter. However, he was stuck in a holding pattern as he was previously ordered in April by the IBF to next face Croatia’s Filip Hrgovic. Their proposed title eliminator was also scheduled for a purse bid, only for Hrgovic to bail and instead agree to next face David Adeleye, 14-1 (13 KOs), on August 16 in Riyadh.
Ajagba is 5-0-1 since his first meeting with Sanchez.
The draw came in his most recent outing, as he and Martin Bakole fought to a stalemate on May 3 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Most viewers felt Ajagba deserved the nod.
Their bout was originally pegged as an IBF eliminator. Sanctioning was removed, however, when Bakole accepted a last-minute opportunity to challenge WBO interim titlist Joseph Parker, against whom he was stopped in the second round of their February 22 clash.
Ajagba and Bakole still moved forward with their fight, albeit for lesser stakes.
Per IBF rules covering purse bids and sanctioned title fights and eliminators, Sanchez and Hrgovic are required to commit to the ordered eliminator to avoid losing their current top five rankings. Failure to move forward would result in the offending party dropping out of the top ten and no longer eligible to participate in an IBF-sanctioned fight for at least six months.
