Christian Mbilli is not concerned with some recent barbs from Terence Crawford and is instead focusing on a blockbuster bout against a former ‘Bud’ adversary. This situation picked up when Crawford worked in a recent Lester Martinez reference on social media with Martinez being a popular sparring partner/ friend of his.
Martinez also fought Mbilli to a draw with the latter maintaining his hold on the then-interim WBC super middleweight title. This was part of the main card offering that saw Crawford unseat Canelo Alvarez from the 168 pound throne and become the undisputed super middleweight champion. With Crawford announcing his retirement from the sport and vacating his straps, Mbilli was upgraded from his interim status to becoming the WBC champion outright.
Following that shift being made official, the aforementioned Terence Crawford tweeted, “Give my bro Lester a title shot because he should be champion right now.” When asked for his thoughts on those comments that were made online from Crawford, Mbilli said [via Bowks Talking Bouts],
“You know, I don’t have to give any attention about this. Crawford, I respect him. He’s a great fighter. He’s a good fighter. He’s very famous. You know, with my team, we have another strategy to be famous too. To be the face of boxing. Of course, we’re going to fight Martinez. Of course, we’re going to fight him. But right now, I’m a world champion. I hope I’m going to fight [soon].”
Christian Mbilli eyes ex-Crawford foe for next bout
With attentions diverted from Crawford’s words and aimed toward a desired next test inside of the ring, Christian Mbilli continued [via Bowks Talking Bouts],
“For me, my goal right now is to fight Canelo because I was [the] long time number one WBC challenger. Number one challenger, number one on WBC for Canelo. Now I have to show that I am the number one of the division. I don’t care about what Crawford is saying, but we’re going to have this rematch on two, three; maybe this year with Martinez.”