Rising super middleweight prospect Christian Mbilli takes another important step in his career when he faces seasoned veteran Jesus Antonio Gutierrez at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York on Thursday.

The Ring City show will be broadcast live on NBC Sports Network at 9:00 ET/ 6:00 PT.

Mbilli, who was originally scheduled to face Ievgen Khytrov in Puerto Rico on March 18, is happy to appear on American TV in what he expects to be a fan-friendly fight.

“The fight against Gutierrez will allow me to show my potential to everyone around the world,” Mbilli (17-0, 16 knockouts) told The Ring through Francois Pratte. “It will be an excellent show between two fighters with an aggressive Mexican boxing style.

“I think that Gutierrez will be very aggressive during this fight. He will try to set his tempo during our battle. He is a very courageous boxer. In his fight against [Gabe] Rosado, we saw that he has good punching power [when he sent] him to the canvas [in Round 4]. We will give an excellent war for the fans watching around the world.”

Mbilli, 25, was born in Cameroon but moved to France, whom he represented at the 2016 Olympics, before turning pro in Canada. He initially fought at middleweight but moved up following an extended absence caused by the pandemic.

“I feel great in the super middleweight division,” he said. “I have more energy and power in my fights. The fight in December (TKO 3 over Rolando Paredes) really helped me get off the rust caused by one year of inactivity.”

Mbilli trained under the watchful eye of Samuel Decarie in Montreal, while trainer Marc Ramsay was in Russia preparing IBF and WBC light heavyweight titleholder Artur Beterbiev, who successfully defended his titles against Adam Deines last month.

The powerful all-action fighter has a few targets for this year.

“I hope to be at least in the top 10 of several sanctioning body rankings,” Mbilli said. “I know it will not be easy because currently we have a lot of difficulties to find boxers who are ready to fight me. Just for the fight on April 22, we had several withdrawals. A lot of boxers do not want to take the risk to fight me. It doesn’t matter, I remain focused on my goals and train really hard.”

Camille Estephan, of Eye of the Tiger Management, made overtures to various fighters but was unable to secure their services.

“We contacted several elite super middleweights including Steven Nelson, Vladimir Shishkin and Tureano Johnson – they all turned down the fight with Mbilli,” said Estephan. “There are many circumstances as to why, but the bottom line is the fighters know facing Mbilli is no picnic.

“We have very high hopes that he’s a world champion in the making, there is no doubt about it.”

Gutierrez (27-4-2, 14 KOs) turned professional in October 2011 and won 17 of his first 18 fights, his only loss coming against the more experienced Paul Valenzuela (MD 6). He dropped a razon-thin decision to Gabe Rosado in June 2016, and the 26-year-old Tijuana resident has also came second to big-punching Steven Butler (KO 2) and unbeaten contender Esquiva Falcao (TKO 8). He has stopped his last two opponents.

Questions and/or comments can be sent to Anson at [email protected] and you can follow him on Twitter @AnsonWainwright

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