Eye of the Tiger’s Camille Estephan has struggled to lure the Crème de menthe of the super middleweight division to Quebec to challenge two of his most valuable fighters in Christian Mbilli and Osleys Iglesias. Diego Pacheco and Kevin Lele Sadjo were two of the most publicized names not to take the challenge.
The problem persists at the start of 2026, with Iglesias (14-0, 13 KOs) being ordered by the IBF to take on Saul Canelo Alvarez for the red-and-gold belt recently vacated by Terence Crawford. Alvarez (63-3-2, 39 KOs) turned down the opportunity due to an arm injury. Estephan has begun working his way down the IBF rankings to find the Cuban a dance partner, but nobody has yet to accept the challenge.
“Not yet,” Estephan said in response to finding Iglesias an opponent. “The IBF are going to go through the list, and we are going to get someone. At the end of the day, they can run, but they can’t hide. So many people have turned down the fight over the last year, but in terms of this fight, we have got as far as [Hamzah] Sheeraz so far. The IBF is doing what it has to do, but I think he has another commitment. We will have to wait for the official response. I can’t say too much more on that one.”
Iglesias had a solitary bout in 2025 as his Montreal-based promotional team searched high and low for a willing combatant. Russia’s Vladimir Shishkin took the call to receive his first stoppage defeat in the eighth round in Montreal this past September. The bout was a final eliminator for the 168-pound IBF belt.
Estephan has run an almost identical parallel operation with Mbilli (29-0-1, 24 KOs). The Frenchman has also struggled to find a foe to square off with north of the border. However, Mbilli secured the WBC interim title last year, defending the belt with a first-round stoppage victory against Maciej Sulecki at Centre Videotron in Quebec City in June and also fought to a split-decision draw in an all-action contest with Lester Martinez on the Crawford-Canelo undercard three months later.
“It was the fight of the year,” Estephan explained. “Credit to both fighters as they always look to please the fans. They are offensive, and they both wanted to put on a show. Talking about seizing the moment, the fight was definitely an example of that, with the fight being on Netflix in front of, I don’t know how many fans, forty million households or whatever it is, they definitely seized the moment.
“I believed the fight was a win for Mbilli simply because Martinez and team were clamoring before the fight that they were going to push Mbilli back because they didn’t believe he would fight back. I can live with the draw. I’m not saying it was a robbery or anything like that. All he [Martinez] did was sit back on the ropes and push and shove. I believe the referee was very clement for not deducting any points. He was shoving him non-stop, that’s not boxing.”
Estephan’s flattering problem at finding opponents for either of his fighters, especially in Canada, does pose the option of sticking Mbilli and Iglesias together in the same fight.
“No,” Estephan responded. “We decided that they will both go a different route. Hopefully, they both become world champions with the WBC and the IBF, and then we will worry about the other titles. We already have the IBO for Iglesias and the WBC interim for Mbilli. If we had three of the belts or two belts each, then we can do a unification, not before that. Right now, we are in a very good space in the division. We want to try and control the division.
“With Christian [Mbilli], we are looking to push for the full WBC title. We are about to announce something that I have to keep to myself for now, but he’s going to be in some big fights. Everyone loves to watch him fight. I think he is one of the most exciting fighters in the world. We did want to give him some rest because after the Martinez fight was a grueling war, and we just need to rest him a little. With Iglesias, the goal is to bring that [IBF title] fight [to Quebec] as early as possible. Iglesias is ready; he’s been training, and we can tell him the fight is on in four weeks, and he will do it. Obviously, we just need to go through the process and give whoever we find enough time to get ready. Ideally, we will do it before the end of March.”
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