CHRISTIAN Mbilli is promising a more dramatic victory over Maciej Sulecki than the one Diego Pacheco delivered last year.
In August 2024, Pacheco stopped Sulecki in the sixth round to maintain his unbeaten record. Just seconds before the finish, DAZN analyst Sergio Mora had called for more body shots – and the super-middleweight obliged, dropping Sulecki with a left hand to the midsection.
Like Pacheco, Mbilli, 28-0 (23 KOs), sits at the top of the 168lbs rankings. The American heads the WBO queue, while Mbilli leads the way with the WBC. In March, the WBC ordered Pacheco to defend his interim title against Mbilli, but the bout fell through. The following month, WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman posted on X that Pacheco had “pulled out of the process for the ordered fight vs Mbilli.”
Speaking to Boxing News last month, Pacheco’s trainer Jose Benavidez Sr claimed they were ready.
“I don’t know what happened with Matchroom… We signed everything to make it happen. Who doesn’t want to fight for the [WBC interim title]? Hopefully we could [face Mbilli] next, after we fight Trevor McCumby.”
Instead, Mbilli will now face Sulecki, 33-3 (13 KOs), for the vacant interim title on Saturday night at Centre Vidéotron in Quebec City. And the French-Canadian is promising more fireworks than the last time Sulecki faced an unbeaten contender.
“I’m not going to say that I’ll put him out faster than Diego Pacheco did,” Mbilli said at Wednesday’s press conference. “But I can promise a more spectacular fight, and that, at the end of it, Sulecki will feel more pain than after his fight with Pacheco. That said, if the KO happens, good — because I’m not paid to do overtime.”
Sulecki, 36, paid Mbilli a compliment as a fighter but warned that the 30-year-old can sometimes be “very wild in the ring”. He also advised him to forget about any future match-ups for now.
“The most important thing for Mbilli right now is this fight with me,” Sulecki said. “This will be very difficult for him. He can talk all he wants about his plans, but he has to fight me first.”
