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Key points: - Frank Sanchez was paid a step-aside fee to let Moses Itauma fight Filip Hrgovic for the vacant IBF heavyweight title instead - Step-aside deals let promoters make a more commercially attractive fight without violating a mandatory challenger’s rights outright - The compensated contender is typically guaranteed a title shot against the winner within a set timeframe - These deals rarely make headlines on their own, despite regularly reshaping which fights actually happen A quiet deal with a loud consequence Moses Itauma’s fight with Filip Hrgovic almost didn’t get to carry a world title at all, until Frank Sanchez, the IBF’s actual top-ranked contender, agreed to step aside for a fee instead of insisting on his own shot first. It’s a deal most fans never think about, even though it directly decided who’s fighting for a world title later this month. Why the mandatory challenger doesn’t just insist Technically, sanctioning bodies exist to protect contenders like Sanchez from being bypassed. In practice, a mandatory challenger who refuses to step aside can end up waiting years while more commercially attractive fights get made around them anyway, sometimes losing relevance in the process. Taking a guaranteed payday now, plus a promised shot at the winner later, is often the more rational business decision, even when it feels like giving something up. What the compensated fighter actually gets Step-aside deals typically include real financial compensation plus a contractual guarantee: a mandatory shot against whoever wins the fight they stepped aside from, usually within a defined window. Sanchez is guaranteed exactly that against the Itauma-Hrgovic winner, with no intervening fights allowed for the champion in between. Why promoters love making these deals A more commercially attractive matchup, in this case Itauma against Hrgovic rather than Itauma against a less recognisable name, draws bigger audiences and better paydays for everyone involved, including the promoter. Paying a mandatory challenger to step aside temporarily is often cheaper than losing the revenue a more marketable fight would have generated. Why this stays out of the headlines Because step-aside deals happen quietly, in contracts rather than in public statements, fans usually only notice the fight that results, not the negotiation that made it possible. That’s exactly why Itauma vs Hrgovic carries a world title at all, a business decision most casual fans watching August 29 will never realise happened.