Christian Mbilli Extends Win Streak But Did He Do Enough To Earn A Shot At Canelo?

Super-middleweight contender Christian Mbilli extended his unbeaten record with a unanimous decision win over Sergiy Derevyanchenko on Saturday to boost his claims of earning a world title shot.

Mbilli (28-0-0 23 KO) secured a wide points victory over Derevyanchenko (15-6-0 10 KO) in the headline bout at Centre Videotron in Quebec City, Canada. Judge Efrain Lebron gave every round to Mbilli, while Steve Weisfeld and Pasquale Procopio scored it 99-91 and 98-92 respectively.

Just by looking at the scores alone, it appears as though the French-Cameroonian put on a 10-round clinic, comfortably passing the biggest test of his career to strengthen his case for a showdown with unified super-middleweight world champion Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez.

In reality, though, the fight was over as a contest from the fourth round onwards after Derevyanchenko tore his bicep, leaving the Ukrainian to fight with one arm for the rest of the bout. Mbilli, for all his athleticism and power, was unable to stop his opponent inside the distance, although it later transpired that he had damaged his hand early on.

"I had some problems with my left hand, and I was not able to bring it up. I had to throw punches. It was difficult, but I had to do my best,” ‘Solide’ said. "He’s a warrior. He was in a difficult position, but he fought back. I’m going to go back home and look at the fight again.”

Mbilli ‘Ready For The Big Fights’

So, ultimately it was a fight between two tough competitors unable to operate at their best. Derevyanchenko did what many smart fighters would do in his situation by going into survival mode, focusing on his defense, and making himself hard to hit.

As a result, Mbilli found it challenging to land clean shots, and while he had the Ukrainian rocked a few times, he never looked in danger of going down. Add to that Mbilli’s hand injury which would have affected his power, then it was always going to be tough to finish the bout inside the distance.

Despite both fighters’ limitations, it was still an entertaining and fast-paced bout to satisfy the fans inside the arena and watching on TV around the world.

Inevitably, Mbilli took the opportunity post-fight to state his ambitions of challenging for a world title, saying: "Right now, I’m ready for big fights. I want to be a world champion. I know that to be the best, I have to beat the best. I don’t want to say any names, but everybody knows who’s number one. I want the fight with No 1."

Of course, he’s talking about Canelo and based on the various rankings, Mbilli can’t do much more to position himself for a shot at the Mexican. He is the No 1-ranked contender with the WBC, second with the WBA, and third with the IBF and WBO. The Ring Magazine rankings also have him as the No 1 contender in the division.

Could Canelo Be Tempted?

Whether, based on his performance against Derevyanchenko, Canelo has much to worry about should he eventually fight Mbilli, is another matter. It’s difficult to assess after a fight like this if the 29-year-old would be ready for the significant step up to face Alvarez.

Perhaps he is and his hand injury prevented him from demonstrating his skills effectively. Perhaps he isn’t and he needs more tests against strong fighters of Derevyanchenko’s standard to prepare himself for the champion.

There is an argument that Canelo could be more interested in granting Mbilli a fight after Saturday’s performance than if the French-Cameroonian had blasted out Derevyanchenko in an early-round knockout.

Alvarez has been carefully selecting his opponents for the past couple of years, taking little notice of the criticism that comes with it. Since losing to light-heavyweight world champion Dimitry Bivol in May 2022, Canelo has beaten a past-his-prime Gennady Golovkin, a limited John Ryder, a Jermell Charlo who climbed two weight classes, and a game but one-dimensional Jaime Munguia.

All the while he has avoided the few genuine challenges to his super-middleweight supremacy in David Benavidez and David Morrell. Perhaps, then, that not looking like a world-beater against Derevyanchenko could work in Mbilli’s favor.