CHRISTIAN MBILLI (ranked top three by each of the governing bodies) collected a commanding unanimous decision win against Sergiy Derevyanchenko in a 10 round super middleweight bout, as the two headlined a nine fight card at Centre Videotron in Quebec, Canada.
Both fighters came out on their toes in the first round, quickly looking to engage with one another, though Mbilli rapidly established his stiff jab, which he would follow up with strong straight rights and pressing power hooks.
Mbilli was frequently sending shots with his head off the line to avoid Derevyanchenko’s outpouring of formidable headshots, and targeted the body rather heavily quite early on.
Derevyanchenko unloaded hooks upstairs to combat Mbilli’s onslaught of punches, with hopes to gain an early advantage against the undefeated Frenchman — which he was ultimately unable to do.
Throughout the fight’s entirety, Mbilli, 29, was clearly in control of the pace due to his output. For example, landing a strong right hand followed by hooks and bruising power shots in round two, heaving Derevyanchenko into the corner.
Fast forward to round four, Derevyanchenko seemingly tore his left bicep, which interestingly enough caused the fight to gain a bit more competitiveness — though only briefly — as the Ukrainian vet immediately went into survival mode by finally throwing combinations as the attacker.
Round five, a one-handed Derevyanchenko came out faster, setting up his shots with feint jabs, ducking, rolling and exhibiting his straight right hand in a slower paced manner than each of the previous rounds.
But, round seven was likely the best for Derevyanchenko, landing a pressing body shot and huge rights, notably stunning Mbilli. With a minute left in the seventh however, Mbilli gained back control and landed two assertive right hands to close the round, and he didn’t look back.
For the 38-year-old injured Derevyanchenko — who clearly was just trying to last until the final bell — the fight went quickly downhill, as Mbilli continued to land combinations that staggered the honorable Ukrainian.
The bout was scored 100-90, 99-91, 98-92, with Mbilli improving to 28-0 (23 KOs), and the three-time title challenger Derevyanchenko falling to 15-6 (10 KOs).