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Christian Mbilli takes on Nadjib Mohammedi in Montreal on Saturday

Christian Mbilli
Fighters Network
22
Mar

World-rated super middleweight Christian Mbilli will face two-time world title challenger Nadjib Mohammedi in an intriguing matchup at the Montreal Casino on Saturday.

Mbilli, who is rated No. 8 by The Ring at 168-pounds, welcomes the opportunity to face Mohammedi, who has been a professional for 17-years and mixed in world class.

“I think Nadjib Mohammedi is a good fighter, I think it will be a good fight for me,” Mbilli (20-0, 18 knockouts) told The Ring. “He has a nice ranking. He has good experience, I think his experience will be good for us to show another side of my boxing style, to improve myself.

“He can bring me more experience and [prepare me to] challenge to be world champion.”



The 26-year-old acknowledges Mohammedi might be a complicated fight though expects to get at his veteran opponent with his suffocating pressure.

“I think Mohammedi is a difficult fighter because he has a difficult style,” he explained. “I don’t know how describe it but he boxes like he can do everything – he’s unpredictable. He’s not an orthodox boxer, his style is very, very difficult for all boxers. He can be difficult for me to look good against him.

“I have to stay focused the whole fight. I think I can break his style in six or seven rounds.”

Mbilli was born in Cameroon but moved to France as a child. He was a standout amateur, winning gold medals at the European Youth and European Union Championships. He represented his adopted homeland at the 2016 Olympics, losing at the quarter-final stage to eventual gold medalist Arlen Lopez.

He then moved to Canada where he turned professional. The aggressive boxer-puncher, who sports a 90-percent knockout ratio, has gained valuable experience working under the much-feted Marc Ramsay and training alongside amongst others IBF and WBC light heavyweight titleholder Artur Beterbiev, former WBO 175-pound beltholder Eleider Alvarez and former IBF middleweight titlist David Lemieux.

Most recently, Mbilli showed a more varied skill set by widely outpointing tough fringe-contender Ronald Ellis.

“I think it was a good fight for me, Ellis is a tough fight, he was a sparring partner of Canelo,” said Mbilli. “It was a challenge for me to box him. I think this fight was very good for my career because I did 10-rounds [for the first time.] I have learned a lot from this fight.

“All my fights were KO [except one], this fight was 10-0, 10-0 and 9-1. I think this fight, [is the fight] I learned the most from in my career.”

Mbilli, who was the subject of a New Faces feature in the August 2021 issue of The Ring, hopes victory will position him for something bigger in the second half of 2022.

“Now we are ready for any opportunity,” he said confidently. “I hope after this fight we will have a big fight. My coach and promoter said, ‘We are ready.’ Maybe before the end of the year, why not fight a world champion. Any boxer, Canelo, Caleb Plant, anyone in the top 10. I am ready for anyone.”

Camille Estephan, of Eye of The Tiger, believes the fight will be an interesting clash of styles but one that will move his fighter forward.

“In this fight, Christian has a very worthy and well-respected opponent,” said the promoter. “He wants to show that he’s ready for the world title. “It’s a bit of a youth vs. experience fight. [It] should be a great fight where both guys have a lot on the line. We have very high hopes that Christian is a world champion in the making.”

Mohammedi turned professional in 2005. He won the French light heavyweight title before he unsuccessfully challenged Nathan Cleverly (UD 12) for the WBO 175-pound title. The Frenchman rebounded to win 14 of 15 contests over the next five-years before he lost to then WBA, WBO and IBF light heavyweight champion Sergei Kovalev (KO 3). In his next contest he was stopped by future WBC titlist Oleksandr Gvozdyk (KO 2).

Those defeats prompted him drop to super middleweight, where he recalibrated with three wins before back-to-back loses to Fedor Chudinov (SD 12) and Vladimir Shishkin (TKO 10). The 36-year-old has lost to Evgeny Shvedenko (UD 10) but is on a three-fight winning streak and should tell us a little more about where Mbilli’s fits into the talented super middleweight division.

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

 

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