Christian Mbilli will face Kevin Sadjo in an IBF super middleweight title eliminator on a still-to-be-determined date to decide the mandatory for champion William Scull.
JuliusJulianis reports that #3 IBF Mbilli (28-0, 23 KOs) and Sadjo (24-0, 21 KOs) will fight next. This match-up should go over well in France and Canada.
This likely means William Scull is in the pole position to challenge unified super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez for May on PPV. Canelo’s trainer/manager, Eddy Reynoso, said this week that Mbilli and Scull are the two candidates running for Alvarez’s next fight.
With Mbilli now out of the running, that leaves Scull (23-0,9 KOs), who isn’t nearly the same offensive threat to Canelo. However, I don’t think anyone in their right mind ever thought Canelo would select Mbilli as his next opponent, but he’s too good.
The 28-year-old Mbilli is way more of a threat to beat Canelo than the 37-year-old Terence Crawford because he has size, power, a high work rate, and youth. He’s not the type of fighter that Canelo would volunteer to fight unless there was a huge PPV number attached to the contest. There wouldn’t be.
Mbilli isn’t a star like Crawford. Again, Mbilli is more of a threat to Canelo than Terence because he’s young, powerful, throws a lot of punches, and he’s a natural 168-pounder. He’s not some old guy moving up two weight divisions for retirement money.
The France-based, Cameron-born Sadjo, 34, is an eight-year pro with a resume barren of notable opposition. The only marginally decent name on the 5’8″ Sadjo’s resume is Jack Cullen, a British domestic-level fighter, and not world class. It’s anyone’s guess why the International Boxing Federation gave Sadjo a #4 ranking because, based on his flimsy resume, he should be ranked at the bottom.
“The French from Y12 Promotions have won the auction, and the IBF World Cup Qualifier for the super middleweight of Christian Mbilli and Kevin Sadjo will be in Paris. Y12 bid a galactic $878k versus EOTT’s very strong $776k. The date will be made official shortly,” said Julius Julianis on X.
