Montreal Casino, Montreal – In a super middleweight showdown, Christian Mbilli (24-0, 20 KOs) overcame the toughest test of his career to win a ten round unanimous decision over Carlos Gongora (21-2, 16 KOs).
The scores were 97-93, 98-92 and 99-91.
Mbilli started faster than usual in the first round, by coming forward and taking the fight to Gongora. It was two-way action as they were trading on the inside for most of three minutes, with both connecting with solid punches.
In the second, Mbilli was pressing forward and throwing. Gongora was using his legs more and looking to connect on solid counters. Mbilli was rocked bad by a left uppercut and nearly went down as he held on to recover. Mbilli was swinging away, but unable to land clean. During the third, Mbilli was upping his workrate and throwing a lot of punches as he stalked Gongora for most of the round.
The fourth saw some give and take action. Mbilli had a higher workrate landed the better shots up and down, but Gongora connected a few heavy blows as well. In the fifth, Mbilli just pumped out punches in bunches for most of the round. There was no stop from Mbilli in the fifth, as he continued to come forward and throw. Gongora was able to take some heavy shots during the sixth and opted to fire back after getting tagged.
Mbilli was just pushing on with his workrate in the seventh. Gongora was able to land a few uppercuts, with Mbilli taking them well. The eight saw Gongora badly rock Mbilli again with an uppercut and nearly made him go down again. He was punished for the first two minutes, but weathered the storm and rallied with heavy shots for the final minute.
In the ninth, Mbilli came out firing with both hands. He was landing huge punches that Gongora took well to his head and body. During the tenth and final round, Mbilli was tired but he was still outworking Gongora during the action. In the closing moments, Mbilli finally hurt Gongora with a series of punches and had him in ready to go when the bell rang.
On the undercard, heavyweight contender Simon Kean (23-1, 22 KOs) picked up the biggest win of his career with a seventh round knockout of division veteran Eric Molina (29-9).
Kean was rocked a few times during the two-way action, but put Molina down and had him in very serious trouble when the fight was called to a halt.
Junior welterweight contender Steve Claggett (34-7-2, 24 KOs) scored a seventh round stoppage over Rafael Guzman Lugo (26-3).
Lightweight prospect Luis Santana (9-0, 3 KOs) continued to roll with a third round TKO of Francisco Martinez (11-5).
Leila Beaudoin (9-0, 1 KO) won a six round unanimous decision over Laura Mondragon (6-1). The scores were 60-54 on all three cards.