By Robert Coster
Most US boxing fans probably have yet to learn about middleweight Christian Mbilli (12-0, 12KOs) but this will undoubtedly change when they see this 23-year-old muscular KO machine in action, hopefully very soon. Up to now, this Cameroon-born French boxer has only fought in France and Canada. He is signed up by Montreal boxing powerhouse GYM and Rixa Promotions.
Christian, who turned pro in 2017, is presently the WBC Youth world champion and has racked up his 12 straight KO victories in just two years. Says promoter Yvon Michel, “We want Christian to achieve top contender status very soon.”
Mbilli won his WBC Youth belt with a three round demolition of Argentinian Marcos Cornejo (19-2, 18 KOs) and, in his last bout, he stopped Luis Fernando Pina (20-1, 15 KOs) in two rounds. In the first round, the Mexican Pina landed a powerful right hand that seemed to stun Christian, but in the second round the young French-Cameroonian landed a spectacular uppercut that leveled his opponent, a candidate for KO of the year.
Mbilli and his family moved to France from Cameroon when he was 7 years old. Christian got into boxing as a teenager after watching a tape of Mike Tyson and quickly became an amateur star in France, racking up an 80-12 record, winning a gold medal at the Youth European Championship 2013, another gold at the European Union Games 2014, and representing France at the 2016 Olympic Games.
At the Olympics, Mbilli defeated touted amateur Dmytro Mytrofanov of Ukraine and Marlon Delgado of Ecuador. He lost in the third round to eventual Olympic Champion Arlen Lopez of Cuba.
So what makes Christian Mbilli special and a possible future star?
Says trainer Marc Ramsey, “He has discipline. He has great two-handed punching power, the capacity to throw non-stop punches. He has one of the best cardio I’ve seen in a boxer.”.
And what about the possibility of fighting in the US?
Christian says, “Yes, I hope it will happen soon. I would love to fight in Las Vegas. Fighting in France, Canada and the USA, that would be a dream. Another dream is to meet Mike Tyson.”
Robert Coster is an excellent judge of boxing talent. To date, seven young fighters from his “New Faces” series have gone on to win world titles (Tomoki Kameda, Evgeny Gradovich, Johan Perez, Nicholas Walters, Ruslan Provodnikov, Emmanuel Rodriguez and Regis Prograis).