Facing Mbilli could be his way to Crawford

WBC interim super middleweight champion Christian Mbilli and Jaime Munguia are in negotiations for a fight in early 2026.

Munguia’s risky road back

#3 WBC Munguia (45-2, 35 KOs) will look to position himself for a quick world title shot by facing interim champion Mbilli (29-0-1, 24 KOs). It’s a bad style matchup for the 29-year-old Eddy Reynoso-trained Munguia, but he has no choice.

Munguia needs to take the shot if he wants to set himself up for a big payday against undisputed champion Terence Crawford before he retires.

The news of the Mbilli vs Munguia fight negotiations was revealed today by boxing insider Mike Coppinger on X.

Mbilli, 30, is coming off a 12-round majority draw against Lester Martinez in the fight of the night on the undercard of Canelo Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford on September 13, 2025, at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

Mbilli-Martinez stole the show, outperforming the headliner between the aging Canelo and Crawford. The Montreal, Canada-based Mbilli probably would have won the fight if not for Lester Martinez’s illegal takedowns all night, which kept him on the outside. The referee should have warned and penalized Lester for the push.

Munguia hasn’t done much to deserve to fight for the interim WBC title. He was knocked out by Bruno Surace in the sixth round on December 14, 2024 in Tijuana, Mexico.

In their rematch, Munguia defeated Surace by a 12-round unanimous decision on May 4, 2025. However, Munguia’s A sample from the fight yielded an adverse analytical finding for exogenous testosterone metabolites.

Munguia’s B sample also showed an adverse finding. Munguia said he did not intentionally take any banned substances that would result in a positive test. He was later cleared by the British Anti-Doping Agency. As such, Munguia’s victory over Surace stood.

Iglesias: The contender Munguia skipped

It would have looked better if Munguia had fought one of the contenders to earn a title shot against Mbilli, given the controversy surrounding his last fight and his knockout loss to Surace prior to that. Having Munguia go up against Cuban knockout artist Osleys Iglesias (14-0, 13 KOs) would have been the ideal way for him to win a fight against WBC interim champion Mbilli.