A month and a half after “accepting” an ordered IBF final eliminator against Frank Sanchez, Queensberry Promotions tells Sky Sports that Daniel Dubois has changed his mind.
“The eliminator holds little
value right now for Daniel. Derek Chisora was named the IBF mandatory at their last convention so the fight vs Frank Sanchez is to be installed as next in line after Chisora.
“Add to that the IBF is last in the queue of the unified championships held by Usyk. If Daniel accepted the fight, it would also limit his options with the other organisations.
“Daniel was proud to be IBF champion but the order and fight itself do little for his career and getting him back into a position to fight for a world title.
“Daniel will be back in 2026 and there are some huge fights out there for him.”
Why he waited to do this until after the IBF had already scheduled a purse bid is beyond me. What is it with fighters and dragging these things out for no reason?
The Sky Sports article claims Dubois (22-3, 21 KO) is the fourth fighter to turn down the eliminator after Efe Ajagba (who waited until after the purse bid), Moses Itauma, and Richard Torrez Jr, but they missed Filip Hrgovic. The Croat still holds the high score in this field, having gone through nine proposed challengers before Zhilei Zhang answered the call in 2022.
Next in the rankings is Jared Anderson, whose lone fight since last year’s drubbing at the hands of Martin Bakole saw him take an ugly UD over non-contender Marios Kollias in February. Gotta love the IBF.
