Moses Itauma rejects IBF final eliminator vs Frank Sanchez

Very strange decision by Itauma.

Maybe he has a fight with Chisora line up?

 

IBF gets these weird obsessions with some boxers sometimes. Once they get a high ranking, they stick to it for some reason, even if it makes no sense.

 

Because any sane person would know he's not remotely ready for Usyk. All that happens if they fight is that Usyk derails the Ituama hype train. Far better for Ituama to actually get some rounds before challenging the final boss of boxing.

 

David Price was almost a decade older at the time. Price was much bigger. Think its very different situation.

Up and comers do need rounds to improve. But if Itauma fought Sanchez he'd have likely lost.

 

Sanchez has 1 loss to an undefeated interim champ. Almost everyone has Kabayel in their top 3.

Makes a lot of sense.

 

The most obvious one in terms of durability but not much of an ability to win would be Jermaine Franklin. He was offered the fight and said no thanks. Must not have offered him enough, his career is at its end, you have to assume he'd have taken a cashout if they'd offered it.

Next would be Hrgovic, although there's some danger there because Hrgovic is actually pretty good. Hrgovic was willing to fight Ituama but wanted too much money, so it didn't happen.

Chisora already turned down $2mil to fight Ituama.

Andy Ruiz? Best target I could think of. Durable, former champ, not likely to win. Wonder if they have seen if he's interested, although apparently he's going to fight Wilder.

How about Wilder? Durable, former champ, not likely to win.

Who is left? Miller? That's some actual danger. Anderson? Doubt he'd take it. Bakole? Too big of a danger when your man hasn't been chin checked yet. Zhang? Same issue.

 

Honestly I would have thought this is the kind of opponent Itauma would want, a guy with a bit of name value and ranking, but without power, aging and losing movement.

I guess they thought Sanchez was top risky? If Frank Sanchez has his movement still he could definitely be a long night for Itauma, which is kind of what he needs tbh.

Ah well, it looks like Torres Jr is next in line, id like to see him take it and see if he has what it takes to hang at the too level, Sanchez is a decent gatekeeper.

And if Torres doesn't want it, we are back to Dubois and Hrgovic.

 

The IBF seems to rank losses less harshly compared to inactivity compared to the other bodies once a fighter becomes ranked.

 

Adeleye and Okolie are durable and available, and so is Yoka.

Then there are others who are decent journeymen but not too high a risk: Dacres, Moore, Shaw, Aliev, Ibeh, and Camkiran.

Lots to choose from.

 

Dude , i hear you but you are really unfair . Wilder had +40 opponents at heavy and not five , he defended his world title 10 times instead of asking for fishy extensions to not be stripped while dancing and playing football , his opponents at least did not came straight out of a party .

Imho wilder deserves respect

 

At some point the HW belts will splinter all over the place as Uysk cannot defend them all more than maybe once

Probably keeping an eye on how things play out

Frank Sanchez and name value shouldn't ever be on the same paragraph

 

yea moses needs to take heat fo this i am a fan but to duck sanchez LOL with all the hype you got and confidence you claim come on man.

 

This might be post of the year

 

He doesn't need the IBF route, it's clear his team have made that decision
With the titles at some point becoming vacant, I'd imagine they are going to just watch from afar

Frank Sanchez isn't part of the plan