Canelo Alvarez challenges WBC super-middleweight champion Christian Mbilli in October, and ahead of the fight, Edgar Berlanga, who went the distance with Canelo back in 2024, has made his prediction.
Alvarez lost out to Dmitry Bivol up at light-heavyweight back in 2022 before returning to defend his undisputed super-middleweight world title on six occasions, winning all of those contests by unanimous-decision.
However, last September, Canelo suffered his first defeat at 168lbs, as he was outboxed by Terence Crawford – who has held world titles as low as lightweight – in one of the most legendary wins in recent boxing history.
Since then, Canelo has been sidelined with an elbow injury, but the Mexican superstar will attempt to reclaim one of his former titles upon his return, tasked with Cameroon’s Christian Mbilli, who was elevated to full WBC titlist following Crawford’s retirement.
Speaking to Ring Magazine, Berlanga looked ahead to the contest, predicting a first stoppage win in almost five years for his former opponent, labelling Mbilli ‘nothing special’.
“I truly believe that Canelo could stop him.”
“I think that Mbilli is nothing special. To me, he’s a guy that comes forward, has good conditioning and throws a lot of punches.
“But when it comes to IQ, I seen him fight against Sergiy Derevyanchenko, who literally had one hand and almost stopped him. He had one arm. He had torn his [biceps] in the fight.
“So, that just goes to show where he’s at as a fighter. But overall, I think it’s gonna be a great fight. I just got Canelo beating him.”
Berlanga himself has recently returned to winning ways, claiming a stoppage win over Steven Butler as he looks to get back into world title contention at 168lbs himself, following his one-sided loss to Canelo two years ago.
Canelo-Mbilli will take place on Saturday, October 31, in Riyadh, with the pair expected to headline a ‘Mexico vs. The World’ themed bill that is already understood to feature one additional world title bout.
