It appears that WBC super middleweight champion Christian Mbilli will finally get his chance at fighting one of boxing’s biggest stars in Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez.
The Ring Magazine reported late last night that the pair “have a done deal to fight in September in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for Mbilli’s WBC super middleweight championship.”
Mbilli’s promoter Camille Estephan posted on his verified social media accounts shortly after the news broke: “We got business.” Accompanied with a picture of Mbilli and Canelo with a link to Mike Coppinger’s report.
The roper goes on to say: “The event, Canelo’s second in Riyadh, will feature Mexico vs. the World with an undercard of featured fights to be announced later.”
Mbilli (29-0-1, 24 KOs) was elevated to world championship status by the WBC following a two-fight run as the interim champion. The Frenchman, who trains with Marc Ramsay in Montreal, comes off a split-decision draw in a Fight of the Year Contender with Lester Martinez on the undercard of Canelo’s unanimous decision defeat to Terence Crawford last September in Las Vegas. Crawford would retire shortly after, leaving the WBC title vacant for Mbilli to become champion.
I personally spoke to Estephan for FightsATW on March 28, who told me: “I think Canelo wants to fight Mbilli and Mbilli wants to fight Canelo. We have spoken many times, and the will is there to make it happen. It’s as close as ever. Christian has the WBC title, and Canelo wants it back, but we don’t want to give it back.”
Canelo (63-3-2, 39 KOs) relinquished his undisputed title to Crawford in a disappointing display. The Mexican superstar has been expected to name one of the current champions at 168 pounds as his next opponent. Elsewhere at super middleweight, Mbilli’s stablemate Osleys Iglesias recently secured the IBF title with an eighth round retirement of Pavel Silyagin, Armando Resendiz defends his WBA belt against Jaime Munguia tomorrow night and the vacant WBO world championship will be contested for by Hamzah Sheeraz and Alem Begic on the Oleksandr Usyk vs Rico Verhoeven undercard on May 23.
