Christian Mbilli is now the WBC super middleweight champion, but the way the belt changed hands says more about how boxing handles risk than it does about the fighter holding it. Mbilli’s promotion from interim to full champion closes a procedural loop the WBC had left hanging since Terence Crawford’s title was stripped. On paper, it brings order.
In practice, it replaces a fight that never materialised with an administrative solution that leaves the division looking much as it did before. The WBC had ordered Mbilli to face Hamzah Sheeraz for the vacant title. That was the fight meant to turn interim status into something concrete. Instead, negotiations stalled, the mandatory order was cancelled, and the belt was reassigned without a purse bid or a resolution in the ring.
The organisation solved the paperwork problem and moved on. Interim titles are meant to lead to a fight. In this case, the ordered bout never arrived and the belt moved anyway. Mbilli stayed active and kept winning, but the step meant to establish his position was bypassed rather than settled in the ring. This is how boxing often handles fighters who are risky but unavoidable: the title moves, the fight doesn’t.
What Mbilli did not get was the bout that would have clarified where he actually stands in a crowded and unsettled weight class. There has already been noise suggesting Sheeraz avoided the fight. The record does not support that. The bout was discussed, the terms did not come together, and priorities shifted. That is not a refusal. It is a reminder that sanctioning bodies can order fights, but they still depend on market forces they cannot control. When those forces take over, titles tend to travel faster than the opponents attached to them. For Mbilli, the elevation changes his status without changing his situation.
He is a champion, but without a clear first defence tied to the announcement. Names will be mentioned, options will be floated, and the division will continue to feel paused rather than defined. This is not a critique of Mbilli’s merit. An undefeated fighter who kept winning did not create this outcome. It is a reflection of a system that often substitutes reassignment for resolution. Titles are supposed to narrow questions. In this case, the elevation widens them. The WBC avoided a messy purse bid and a public stalemate.
That may be efficient. It is not clarifying. Mbilli now carries a full title into a landscape that still lacks a defined path, a mandated opponent, or a fight that confirms hierarchy. For all the ceremony that comes with a green belt, this move leaves the division largely where it started, with one fewer interim label and the same unanswered questions underneath.
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