Mbilli destroys Heffron in 40 seconds, sets up August fight with Derevyanchenko
Arslanbek Makhmudov also picked up a quick knockout win over Miljan Rovcanin
Super middleweight contender Christian Mbilli had just about the easiest night imaginable in Shawinigan this evening, smashing Britain’s Mark Heffron with a body shot just 40 seconds into the first round.
Heffron (30-4-1, 24 KO) came out throwing left hooks, but the fight seemed to leave him the moment Mbilli (27-0, 23 KO) touched his body. “Solide” landed some heavy swings along the ropes before sneaking in a thudding liver shot that put Heffron down for the count.
Next up for the unscathed Mbilli, who sits in all four sanctioning bodies’ top threes but will almost assuredly never get a crack at Canelo, is an August 17th showdown with Sergiy Derevyanchenko in Quebec. He’ll again be a heavy favorite against the aging, undersized vet, but Derevyanchenko has some brass ones and is extremely hard to get rid of, so that could turn into a quality scrap.
The evening’s other fight of note saw Arslanbek Makhmudov (19-1, 18 KO) return to the win column by clubbing Miljan Rovcanin (27-4, 18 KO) into submission, sending Rovcanin through the ropes in the first before taking him out with a chopping right late in the second. Rovcanin wasn’t any sort of test and told us very little about whether Makhmudov has grown from last December’s beatdown at the hands of Agit Kabayel, but as the announcers said on the broadcast, there’s a decent chance this gets him another stint on a Saudi show.