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Jaime Munguia Christian Mbilli Interim Super Middleweight Title Fight Ordered During WBC Convention
NEWS
Jake Donovan
Jake Donovan
RingMagazine.com
Jaime Munguia-Christian Mbilli Interim Super Middleweight Title Fight Ordered During WBC Convention
Jaime Munguia still must take care of business this weekend but will have a big fight waiting for him in the new year.

The ratings portion of the annual WBC convention revealed that Tijuana’s Munguia and Christian Mbilli—a Cameroon-French boxer based in Montreal—were ordered to meet for the interim super middleweight title.

Their placement near the WBC rankings normally calls for a final eliminator, but the sanctioning body has been more liberal with its use of secondary titles on a case-by-case basis.

Munguia (44-1, 35 knockouts) and Mbilli (28-0, 23 KOs) are The Ring No. 1 and No. 2 super middleweight contenders, respectively.

They are also the two highest rated available boxers in the WBC ratings—Mbilli is No. 3 Munguia No. 5. Ranked in between them is Diego Pacheco (22-0, 18 KOs), The Ring No. 4 contender as well, who is presently set to face Steve Nelson (20-0, 16 KOs) on Jan. 25 in Las Vegas.

Not confirmed during the convention is whether the Munguia-Mbilli winner—should the fight move forward—will be named as the mandatory challenger to The Ring, WBC, WBA and WBO super middleweight champion Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez (62-2-2, 39 KOs).

It has remained a sore subject through the years.

David Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) previously held the top spot at 168, including the WBC’s interim title for more than two years. He gave up on waiting for a shot at Alvarez and moved up to 175 where he is The Ring No. 4 contender. Benavidez also holds the interim WBC title at the weight, which he will defend against secondary WBA titlist David Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs), The Ring No. 8 contender, on Feb. 1 in Las Vegas.

Munguia already had his shot at Alvarez but suffered his first career defeat. Their May 4 all-Mexico battle saw Alvarez prevail via unanimous decision.

Munguia rebounded with a Sept. 20 tenth-round knockout of Erik Bazinyan (32-1-1, 23 KOs), The Ring No. 9 super middleweight. He returns to the ring for the fourth time this year when he faces France’s Bruno Surace (25-0-2, 4 KOs) at Estadio Caliente in his Tijuana hometown (Saturday, ESPN+, 9:00 p.m. ET).

Mbilli has earned three wins on the year to further advance in the super middleweight rankings.

The most significant came in his most recent outing. Mbilli was extended all ten rounds in a unanimous decision over Sergiy Derevyanchenko (15-6, 10 KOs) on Aug. 17 in Quebec City, Canada. It snapped a three-fight knockout streak, which followed a ten-round points win over Carlos Gongora (21-1, 16 KOs at the time) last March.

Negotiations for Munguia-Mbilli are expected to begin shortly after this weekend, provided that Munguia defeats the unbeaten Surace.

Jake Donovan is part of the U.S. team for The Ring. Follow Jake on X and Instagram.

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