Christian Mbilli won’t need another win to elevate his WBC interim super middleweight title to the real thing, as Mauricio Sulaiman and co. held an event today to announce his ascension.
They had previously ordered Mbilli (29-0-1, 24 KO), who ran over Maciej Sulecki for the belt last June before defending it in a punishing draw with Lester Martinez, to face Hamzah Sheeraz for the belt Terence Crawford left behind. Sheeraz instead elected to go the WBO route and challenge Diego Pacheco, which hypothetically should have led the WBC ro re-order a rematch between Mbilli and Martinez.
As is, Martinez’s “case will be evaluated by the Board of Governors,” per their latest update. Said update also names Conor Benn the new mandatory challenger at 147 despite Souleymane Cissokho winning a final eliminator, so if I were Martinez, I wouldn’t get my hopes up.
Mbilli marks the second elevated secondary champion after the WBA gave Jose Armando Resendiz the honor earlier this month. Sheeraz and Pacheco have a looming purse bid for the WBO belt, while Pavel Silyagin reportedly agreed to fight Osleys Iglesias for the IBF.
