Christian Mbilli promoter questions referee's point deduction in Canelo Alvarez defeat

Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’s unanimous decision victory over Christian Mbilli was free of controversy, bar one moment in the eighth round when the referee deducted a point from Mbilli.

Mbilli’s promoter, Camille Estephan, believes the Mexican superstar influenced the referee’s decision, which came without a prior warning.

Though it would be wrong to call the moment pivotal – Mbilli’s bright start had faded long before then – it certainly won’t have helped the underdog’s chances going into the final four rounds.

Mbilli was punished for hitting to the back of the head. Before the point was deducted, Alvarez had gestured to referee Hector Afu that a foul had been committed.

Mbilli was outboxed for the remainder of the bout, and Canelo was declared the winner by scores of 115-112, 116-111 and 117-110. With the victory, Alvarez regained the WBC super middleweight title and bounced back from his September 2025 loss to Terence Crawford.

For Mbilli, 29-1-1 (24 KOs), it was a steep learning curve.

“Close fight, hats off to Canelo - a great performance,” Estephan said.

“As far as the ref, it seemed like he was influenced to take that point off. But I'm not in his shoes.

“I can't understand what went through his mind.

“Regardless, there will be many more big fights for Christian. He belongs.”

Mbilli, however, did not address the incident when posting on social media.

“Last night didn’t go the way I wanted,” Mbilli wrote.

“I’ll learn from this experience, get back in the gym, and come back stronger.

“Thank you to my team and all of you for your messages of support.”