QUEBEC CITY, Canada – Message sent.

Super middleweight contender Christian Mbilli entered the ring last night at the Videotron Centre in Quebec City looking to make a statement against the resurgent Maciej Sulecki.

Two minutes and 28 seconds later, he had done just that after uncorking a right uppercut that dropped and ultimately stopped his Polish opponent. Short, sweet and to the point.

Montreal’s Mbilli (29-0, 24 KOs), rated at No. 1 by The Ring at super middleweight, was content to bask in his victory over Sulecki (33-4, 13 KOs). His promoter, Camille Estephan, was only too happy to plead his contender’s case for the biggest fight of his career after he won the WBC interim title.

“There is only one true, official, clear challenger to Canelo and it’s this guy,” Estephan said at the post-fight press conference. “This is a massive performance. It speaks for itself. He delivers the goods every time.”

In many ways it’s been a frustrating time for Mbilli, and he took all of that anger out on Sulecki. He last fought 10 months ago at the same venue, where he beat former middleweight title challenger Sergey Derevyanchenko on points. Mbilli’s win was wide and decisive.

However, many pointed to Mbilli not being able to overwhelm the Ukrainian, who fought much of the encounter with one arm.

What was unknown to most was Mbilli also injured his arm and later needed surgery. He got the win and then had to endure a longer wait than he or his team would have liked.

“You have no idea how hard it was to get a fighter to get in the ring with him,” said Estephan, who then mentioned unbeaten Diego Pacheco. “He's been running. Where is he? Forget about Pacheco. He won’t fight Christian.”

Pacheco explained to The Ring recently that he wasn’t offered enough money to battle Mbilli on the Cameroon native’s home turf in Quebec. Marc Ramsay, Mbilli’s trainer, is also convinced Pacheco (23-0, 18 KOs) simply doesn’t want to fight Mbilli.

“He was supposed to be here tonight,” Ramsay said.

Los Angeles’ Pacheco later agreed to fight Trevor McCumby (28-1, 21 KOs) on July 19 at Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas. The mild-mannered Mbilli clearly had heard enough about Pacheco on Friday night.

“I know I’m better than Pacheco, you have to stop with this guy,” Mbilli said. “He ducked me two times. Stop giving him credit. He’s not a boxer, he’s a duck.”

Estephan will seemingly not rest until he has secured as fight with boxing’s biggest star for his client.

“We just keep going through walls, go around them, go over, do what we have to do,” Estephan said.

First, of course, Alvarez has to beat Terence Crawford when he puts his Ring, IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO 168-pound titles on the line in their mega fight September 13 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

The idea has been floated by Turki Alalshikh that Mbilli could fight on the undercard or on another Riyadh Season card in the fall.

“We will see,” Ramsay said. “I’m not concerned about [this] fight. He looked like he has no injury. Just the intensity that we put in the preparation, we [started] on February 1. It’s a lot of effort in the gym. He needs a little break. We’re going to talk to Christian and calculate our next move.”

While the all-action Mbilli has the word interim attached to his name for the time being, Estephan isn’t too concerned.

“Interim doesn’t mean anything,” Estephan said. “This guy is world champion, the rest is politics. I think the fans are asking for Mbilli now. People want to see him against Canelo. Right now, it’s Crawford-Canelo. Respect to both of them, but we have the real challenger.”

Based on how he beat Sulecki, there can be no debate as to who is the best and most qualified contender to face Canelo if he retains his titles against Crawford.