The World Boxing Council announced Tuesday that their interim 168 lb. champ, Christian MBilli, has now been made the full champion at super middleweight. We explain what that means and what's next.
On Tuesday morning, the World Boxing Council decided to make their "interim" super middleweight champ the full champion by promoting Christian Mbilli. The Cameroon born, now living in Canada Mbilli is 29-0-1 with 24 knockouts.
But, while the hard-hitting 29-year-old who looked every bit the part of a future world champ on paper, his most recent outing raised some questions.
Fighting on the Crawford–Canelo undercard back in September, Mbilli battled fellow WBC contender Lester Martinez of Guatemala to a tough and controversial 10 round draw, leaving plenty unresolved. The two slugged it out at the massive Allegiant Stadium with both men hurt at times late in the 10 round bout.
Later in the night Crawford upset Alvarez, the long time undisputed champ of the division, by 12 round decision in the main event. However, Crawford has since retired and then, vacated all of the sanctioning bodies belts.
So, it's now unclear whether the WBC will push for an immediate rematch for Mbilli and Martinez or instead, require Mbilli to face another ranked contender, as part of this elevation?
The organization didn't exactly spell it out on their website Tuesday either, as they only referred to Martinez's status under their super middleweight mandatory rulings by saying, "HIS CASE WILL BE EVALUATED BY THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS."
The WBC had originally tried to pair Mbilli with England's hard hitting Hamzah Sheeraz for their full title.
However, the WBO jumped in front of the WBC targeting a match-up between the Englishman Sheeraz, 22-0-1 with 18 KOs and Mexican-American Diego Pacheco, 25-0 with 18 knockouts in a similar fight of elite unbeaten contenders in their rankings.
The bout is being tentatively eyed for February or March and promises fireworks, though formal agreements have yet to be finalized.
Back to Mbilli, he's only been somewhat active in the last two years, having destroyed contender Maciej Sulecki in the first round last June in Quebec City. And, he beat former world title challenger in both the middleweight and super middleweight divisions, Sergey Derevyanchenko by 10 round decision in August of 2024.
Still the WBC could motivate Mbilli with a mandatory challenger order coming up that could possibly require him to fight in the first part of 2026. And, certainly if he wins that bout (against Martinez in the rematch or anyone else) it would put him in line for a possible unification fight for the winner of the Sheeraz-Pacheco proposed fight, etc.