Christian Mbilli earns a unanimous decision victory against the heavily armed Sergiy Derevyanchenko

CHRISTIAN MBILLI (ranked in the top three by each governing body) collected a unanimous decision victory against Sergiy Derevyanchenko in a 10-round super middleweight bout, as both headlined a nine-fight card at the Center Videotron in Quebec, Canada.

Both fighters came out on their toes in the first round, looking to connect with each other, although Mbilli quickly stepped up his jab, following it up with strong straight rights and pressing power hooks.

Billi often sent shots with his head off the line to avoid Derevyanchenko’s fearsome shots, and aimed the body too early.

Derevyanchenko dropped hooks from floor to floor to counter Mbilli’s onslaught, hoping to gain an early advantage against the undefeated Frenchman – which he ultimately failed to do.

Throughout this fight, Mbilli, 29, was able to control the pace because of his exit. For example, landing a hard right hand followed by hooks and powerful, damaging shots in the second round, throwing Derevyanchenko into the corner.

Fast forward to the fourth round, Derevyanchenko appeared to tear his left bicep, causing the fight to get more competitive – albeit briefly – as the Ukrainian vet quickly went into survival mode by eventually throwing combinations as the striker.

Round five, the one-handed Derevyanchenko came out quickly, stopping his shots with feint jabs, ducking, rolling and showing his straight right hand in a slower fashion than in the previous rounds.

But, the seventh round was probably too good for Derevyanchenko, he landed a flurry of shots and big rights, especially Mbilli. However, with a minute left in the seventh round, Mbilli was able to regain control and land two strong hands to close the round, and never looked back.

For the injured Derevyanchenko, 38 – who was just trying to keep going until the final bell – the fight quickly went downhill, as Mbilli continued to rally the respected Ukrainian.

The fight was scored 100-90, 99-91, 98-92, with Mbilli reaching 28-0 (23 KOs), while three-time title contender Derevyanchenko fell to 15-6 (10 KOs).