Super middleweight contender Christian Mbilli is guaranteed a summer fight date with an injury-free win this weekend.

The Ring has confirmed that Sergiy Derevyanchenko is in line to face the unbeaten super middleweight contender on August 17 in Quebec City, Canada. The bout is contingent upon Mbilli emerging victorious and unscathed versus Mark Heffron this Saturday on ESPN+ from Shawinigan, Canada.

From there, Mbilli, The Ring’s No. 2-rated super middleweight, will square off with Derevyanchenko, a three-time former title challenger.

The August 17 date was verified to The Ring by Top Rank’s Hall of Fame matchmaker Brad Goodman, confirming a breaking news report from ESPN.com’s Mike Coppinger. Mbilli is co-promoted by Top Rank and Eye of The Tiger Management, and trained by Marc Ramsey.

Mbilli (26-0, 22 knockouts) is listed by FanDuel sportsbook as a -2500 favorite to defeat England’s Heffron this weekend.

Heffron (30-3-1, 24 KOs) has won five of his last six bouts since a Nov. 2020 knockout loss Denzel Bentley. All five wins during that stretch have come inside the distance. The 32-year-old Brit last fought on February 24 in his hometown of Oldham, where he stopped Serhii Ksendzov in the second round. Heffron  was stopped by fringe contender Jack Cullen in the third round in his previous bout last Sept. 2.

The bout is the second of the year for the Montreal-based Cameroonian, who stopped Rohan Murdock after six rounds on Jan. 26 in Quebec City. Murdock was game but overwhelmed by the heavy-handed Mbilli.

The win came four months after Mbilli manhandled Demond Nicholson inside of two rounds. The 29-year-old contender also holds victories over Carlos Gongora, Ronald Ellis and former title challenger Nadjib Mohammedi.

An amateur standout, Mbilli represented France at the 2016 Olympic Games. His targeted summertime opponent boasts a similar amateur pedigree.

Derevyanchenko (15-5, 10 KOs) represented Ukraine in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The 38-year-old is now based in Brooklyn, where he earned a ten-round win over Vaughn Alexander on April 20.

The feat put him back in the win column after he lost four of his previous five bouts. Derevyanchenko dropped a narrow decision to then-unbeaten Jaime Munguia last June 10 in Ontario, California. Their terrific 12-round slugfest was honored by the Boxing Writers Association of America as the 2023 Fight of the Year.

Derevyanchenko suffered three defeats in major title fights.

He dropped competitive decisions one year apart to stablemate Daniel Jacobs in Oct. 2018 and Gennadiy Golovkin in Oct. 2019, both with the IBF middleweight title at stake. Jermall Charlo then convincingly defeated Derevyanchenko in their Sept. 2020 WBC middleweight title fight.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for The Ring since October 2013 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (California) Star newspaper. He can be reached at [email protected]

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