Gennadiy Golovkin had Madison Square Garden in New York. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Christian Mbilli will now have the Videotron Center in Quebec.
Eye of the Tiger Management revealed Tuesday, on the sidelines of the unveiling of the clash card between Mbilli and Sergyi Derevyanchenko, that the Montrealer of Franco-Cameroonian origin will settle in the Old Capital for the next few years of his sporting career.
A “residence”, a bit like we see in Las Vegas casinos for artists like Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley or Celine Dion.
The idea is to offer a certain advantage to Mbilli on a sporting level. But also to ensure the income necessary for the next very expensive fights of the one who is ranked first contender in the World Boxing Council (WBC), second in the World Boxing Association (WBA) and third in the International Boxing Federation (IBF) and the World Boxing Organization (WBO).
Camille Estephan, president of EOTTM, explained that the idea germinated with people from Top Rank and ESPN, as well as with Martin Tremblay, chief operating officer of Quebecor’s Sports and Entertainment Group.
“That’s big,” said Estephan. Often with our athletes, we had to go on the road for big fights, because of American TV. There, it’s American TV that will come to our house every time he goes to fight. It’s so big; it changes everything game for us. Whether for Quebec boxing or for Eye of the Tiger, we will now have the revenue in place. We would never have been able to have these two fights (Mbilli-Derevyanchenko and Arslanbek Makhmudov against Guido Vianello) without that. »
“Imagine if Christian fights two or three times a year and every time we get that opportunity. It’s a treasure for him, for us, for Quebec boxing. Lucian Bute and Jean Pascal had that for a few fights, but no one since,” he recalled.
“We impressed ESPN and we impressed (Top Rank president) Bob Arum; that’s why they come back. Christian is about to be world champion. He will probably have to go and win his belt abroad, but once he has it, this is where he will fight, added Tremblay. It’s recognition from ESPN and Top Rank that we are a boxing town and that they want to develop a local guy. »
“When he is master of his destiny, Marc Ramsay will decide how many fights he wants to do per year. But he will make them for us. […] Everything is in place to build something serious and recurring for the coming years,” he continued.
Estephan explained that it was the evening of January 13, when Mbilli had delivered a spectacular fight to the Australian Rohan Murdock and that he had brought the crowd of some 10,000 people to their feet, which had made the choice of Quebec official. .
“There was a snowstorm and when the doors opened at 6 p.m., there were already 4,000 people in the building. That’s the reason,” he said.
In Montreal, EOTTM most often holds its evenings at the Cabaret du Casino de Montréal, a venue that holds about 700 people in a boxing configuration, a crowd clearly insufficient to generate the kind of box office revenue the promoter will need for the fights to take place. of Mbilli are financially profitable.
Mbilli (27-0, 23 KOs) will face Derevyanchenko (15-5, 10 KOs) on August 17, at his new home.