Mbilli beats injured Derevyanchenko, Vianello batters Makhmudov

Christian Mbilli is still unbeaten, anjd we saw another fighter at 168 lbs who might be starting to break out.

Christian Mbilli won a decision over Sergiy Derevyanchenko tonight in Quebec City, keeping his undefeated record as well as his name in the hopper to potentially land a Canelo Alvarez fight in 2025.

Mbilli (28-0, 23 KO) took the fight on scores of 98-92, 99-91, and 100-90, but it has to be noted that Derevyanchenko (15-6, 10 KO) suffered what appeared to be a torn biceps early in the bout, making him a one-handed, back-hand fighter.

Given that limitation, the 38-year-old Derevyanchenko still boxed pretty well, but it would be pretty impossible to give him more than two rounds of the fight, which no judge did.

It does hinder, perhaps, what we can have learned about the 29-year-old Mbilli, because we just didn’t get the best version of an aged Derevyanchenko tonight due to the injury.

Vianello dominates Makhmudov

A career-best performance for Italian heavyweight Guido Vianello, who completely took Arslanbek Makhmudov apart and scored a stoppage at the very start of the eighth round, when the ringside physician finally ran out of times he could allow the bout to continue with Makhmudov’s left eye beaten shut.

Vianello (13-2-1, 11 KO) controlled the lumbering Makhmudov (19-2, 18 KO) from the start and just never let up, hammering the Russian-Canadian with good shots with very little other than the idea of power coming back from Makhmudov.

This is two losses in three fights for the 35-year-old Makhmudov, and both of them were beatings that really exposed his limitations. For Vianello, he’ll hope this is a new lease on his career, and at age 30, the former Olympian does still have time.

Radar: Osleys Iglesias

If you have a few minutes, you should fire up your ESPN+ and check out Cuban super middleweight Osleys Iglesias, who improved to 12-0 (11 KO) with a second round stoppage of Sena Agbeko.

Nobody’s going to argue that Agbeko (28-4, 22 KO) is a world-beater, but the Ghanaian veteran is a solid pro, and Iglesias’ heavy hands were just way too much for him, same as happened to Marcelo Coceres and Evgeny Shvedenko, both of whom Iglesias, 26, stopped in one round.

This is someone you should absolutely have on your radar right now if you don’t already. The only opponent to go the distance with him thus far is Isaac Chilemba back in 2022, and Chilemba is sort of an expert survivor.

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