Christian Mbilli (28-0, 23 KOs) outworked an injured Sergiy Derevyanchenko (15-6, 10 KOs), exploiting his injured left bicep to grind out a ten-round unanimous decision on Saturday night in their headliner at super middleweight on ESPN at the Videotron Centre in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.
Derevyanchenko’s Early Promise Cut Short
Derevyanchenko boxed impressively for a 38, looking more like a fighter in his late 20s and showing off his technical ability. Late in the fourth, Derevyanchenko injured his left bicep while throwing a jab at Mbilli, and from that point, he was a one-armed fighter.
The scores were 100-90, 99-91 and 98-92.
Super middleweight isn’t Derevyanchenko’s weight class, as he’s fought his best years at 160, and he was outsized by Mbilli tonight. The two fighters appeared at least 10 to 15 lbs apart in weight, with Mbilli, the natural 168-pounder, appearing much bigger than Derevyanchenko, who was fighting two good arms.
After the injury in the fourth, Derevyanchenko used his right arm as well, hitting Mbilli repeatedly with headshots and punches to the body from the fifth, hurting him in the seventh round briefly.
Mbilli Capitalizes on the Injury
Still, having one arm against a younger, bigger, stronger, and more active Mbilli proved to be too much for Derevyanchenko, who wore down in the final three rounds. Mbilli had a smile on his face as he attacked, and he seemed to be enjoying the chase.
Derevyanchenko’s trainer, Andre Rozier, questioned whether he could continue fighting with his injury after the eighth round, telling him that he would give him one more round.
Derevyanchenko responded well in the ninth, landing a lot of clean shots to the head of Mbilli, who was walking forward, eating everything he threw without even trying to get out of the way of the punches.
Mbilli had come into the fight with a reputation for having zero defensive skills, and that proved to be the case tonight. He was getting hit with everything Derevhyanchenko threw. He was lucky to face an injured, smaller, older guy who wasn’t a bigger puncher.
Someone like David Benavidez or the undercard fighter, the Cuban Osleys Iglesias, would have been a problem tonight for him.
