Christian Mbilli says he hopes to challenge Canelo Alvarez next for his undisputed super middleweight championship if they both win their fights this Saturday night, September 13, on Netflix at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
Predicting Canelo vs. Crawford
The Canadian-based Mbilli predicts that Canelo will defeat Terence Crawford in the main event. He feels that Crawford won’t be able to move up three weight classes and dominate Canelo the same way he did in the other divisions.
Mbilli (29-0, 24 KOs) defends his WBC interim 168-lb title against Lester Martinez in a 10-round fight on the undercard of Canelo vs. Crawford. Surprisingly, the Mbilli-Martinez fight isn’t the co-feature on the card. It’s been placed below the Callum Walsh vs. Fernando Vargas Jr. on the card.
Turki Alalshikh hasn’t made a definitive statement about who Canelo will fight next if he defeats Crawford. Mbilli would be an excellent choice, and that would make many U.S and Canadian fans happy.
However, it’s still too early to know who Turki will choose. It won’t be surprising if he bypasses Mbilli and selects #1 WBC Hamzah Sheeraz as the one who will challenge Alvarez.
The Path to No. 1
“The goal is to be champion, to be #1. Right now, I’m #2, and after this fight, I hope to fight the #1 in the division,” said Christian Mbilli today at the press conference about his hopes to face the undisputed super middleweight champion next if he’s victorious against Lester Martinez on Saturday night.
Mbilli has got the big puncher #3 WBA, #7 WBC, and #15 WBO Martinez (19-0, 16 KOs) that he must deal with. This guy is a pure slugger and is going to go to war on Saturday. What the Guatemalan Martinez, 29, has going against him in winning is that he hasn’t fought any notable opposition during his six-year career.
“I think Canelo is going to win, because he’s a real super middleweight. For me, I don’t think you can take weight like this and do the same that you have done in the past,” said Mbilli when asked for his prediction for the Canelo vs. Crawford main event on Saturday.
As you can see, Mbilli doesn’t think Crawford can move up three divisions and dominate Canelo like he’d done in the lower weight classes from welterweight to lightweight. We got a glimpse of how Crawford struggled moving up just one weight class from 147 to 154 in his last fight on August 3, 2024, against Israil Madrimov.
Crawford didn’t look like the same fighter he’s been in the past, as he came close to losing for the first time in his career. Now, he’s moving up two additional weight classes from 154 to 168 without a tune-up and coming off a year’s layoff.
Mbilli says he thinks he’s going to get the Canelo fight, because he’s confident he’ll defeat Martinez to get the last hurdle out of the way for that fight to happen. It’ll still come down to what Turki wants, and he might choose Hamzah.
The Best Fight of the Night
Christian, 29, states that he expects his fight with Martinez to be the “best fight” on Saturday’s card, and he could be right. On paper, it promises to be more entertaining than the main event, as well as the undercard. Crawford is expected to box. So the main event between him and Canelo may not be fun to watch.
When Mbilli first found out that he was facing Lester Martinez, he says he was “disappointed” because he wanted a “big name fighter.” But he didn’t have a choice, so he was forced to take the fight. However, he still views it as a “great fight.”
