Newly crowned WBO super middleweight champion Hamzah has said quite a bit that he wants to face Canelo in a unification bout next, provided he defeats WBC champion Mbilli to unseat him. It is completely understandable why Sheeraz would prefer to fight Canelo rather than the Cameroon-born Mbilli.
Focusing on a miracle win for Canelo is just setting up for a major disappointment. The warning signs have been screaming for a while about Canelo being over there.
Mbilli is the worst possible match for an old fighter with a broken engine. He brings suffocating, unrelenting physical pressure from the opening bell. Canelo has probably been protected by soft matchups in recent years, allowing him to rest on the ropes and fight in short bursts. Mbilli wasn’t going to let him breathe, let alone rest.
When he finally stepped outside of the careful matchups he’s repeatedly done since 2019 against Dmitry Bivol and then Terence Crawford, we saw an aging fighter physically exposed and completely dismantled.
Mbilli is a completely different kind of danger than a pure boxer like Bivol or Crawford, but he represents exactly the same threat to an old fighter: a relentless, punishing pace that Canelo simply cannot keep up with. If Canelo gets soundly beaten in September, that whole golden vision of a big-money UK or Riyadh mega-fight goes out the window.
Instead of treating Mbilli as an afterthought, they should prepare Sheeraz for the very real possibility of having to negotiate with him next. Banking on a faded superstar to save the day is a terrible strategy when a hungry destroyer stands right in the way.
Queensberry should prepare Sheeraz physically for a world where he has to face a relentless, peak Mbilli to unify the division. Expecting an old, undersized Canelo to save them with a miracle win is just bad business.
