Christian Mbilli remained unbeaten with a 10-round unanimous decision victory over Sergiy Derevyanchenko on Saturday night. Mbilli (28-0, 23 KO’s) battered the three-time title challenger, who fought through an injury to his left arm early in the bout. Scores were 100-90, 99-91 and 98-92.
Mbilli is ranked #1 at super middleweight by the WBC, #2 by the WBA, and #3 by both the IBF and WBO. Derevyanchenko (15-6, 10 KOs), at age 38, was a tough test for the younger (29) powerhouse and Mbilli came out very strong with volume punches that rocked the Ukranian.
Derevyanchenko weathered the early storm with movement and was scoring decent shots of his own going into the fourth round. That’s when an injury occurred to the left bicep and Derevyanchenko was forced to fight with just high right hand for the rest of the bout.
It was a game effort from Derevyanchenko, who rocked Mbilli late in the fight. There was no questioning the scorecards, but Mbilli didn’t feast on his injured, 38-year old opponent as he would be expected to with his reputation as a power puncher. The volume of punches was there, but no knockdowns were scored. At the same time, Dervyanchenko is as tough as they come, with competitive decision losses to Gennadiy Golovkin, Jermall Charlo and Jaime Munguia on his record.
