Frank Sanchez And Filip Hrgovic To Battle In IBF Eliminator With Potential 2026

The IBF has ordered #4 Frank Sanchez to fight #6 Filip Hrgovic in a heavyweight title eliminator. The winner will be mandatory for IBF champion Daniel Dubois. They’ll still need to wait until the current mandatory Derek Chisora gets his title shot against Dubois.

Sanchez (25-1, 18 KOs) and Hrgovic (18-1, 14 KOs) were both knocked out two fights ago. It seems a little early for them to be given another chance to put themselves in position to fight for a world title. This is how the IBF operates.

Timeline to a Shot

Chisora will likely get a shot at the winner of the Dublois vs. Oleksandr Usyk 2 rematch later this year. If everything goes well, the Sanchez-Hrgovic winner will challenge for the IBF title in early 2026. That’s a best-case scenario. In the worst case, they’ll have to wait until 2027.

They make it easy for certain fighters to get title shots; hence, 41-year-old Chisora has worked himself into a mandatory slot with the IBF after beating Otto Wallin, Joe Joyce, 39, and 42-year-old Gerald Washington in his last three fights. It cheapens what it means to be mandatory when select fighters have it so easy.

Dubois is expected to fight a rematch with unified three-belt heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk. The winner of that fight will defend against Chisora and then the winner of the Sanchez-Hrgovic fight.

Hrgovic had a lot of trouble in his last fight, going the 10-round distance to defeat Joe Joyce by a unanimous decision on April 5th. After the fight, Hrgovic’s face looked like he’d been hit by a truck. The slow, heavy shots from Joyce did a lot of damage.

Sanchez, who looks a lot older than his chronological age of 32, was stopped in the seventh round by Agit Kabayel last year on May 18th. He was dropped twice by Kabayel in the seventh round due to knee problems. If Sanchez’s knee is still giving him problems, he’s not going to last long against Hrgovic because he’s likely going to be leaning on him to test out that problem.

An update on El Animal’s next potential fight 🚨 pic.twitter.com/NMKxaHWfpa

— Queensberry Promotions (@Queensberry) April 16, 2025