Christian Mbilli is back on the hunt for a targeted opponent.

The Ring has confirmed that Diego Pacheco will no longer proceed with his IBF-ordered title eliminator against Mbilli. A purse bid hearing previously scheduled for last Tuesday was canceled outright, as a result.

The fallout was hardly a surprise. As previously reported, Pacheco (22-0, 18 KOs), The Ring No. 4 super middleweight, will next face Steven Nelson on Jan. 25 at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.

Mbilli (28-0, 23 KOs), The Ring No. 1 super middleweight, was also attached to a WBC-ordered eliminator with Tijuana's Jaime Munguia (44-2, 35 KOs). The ruling was made earlier this month during the WBC convention.

Those plans were shot to sunshine when Munguia, previously No. 1 at 168, suffered a sixth-round knockout to Bruno Surace (26-0-2, 5 KOs) last weekend in Tijuana.

IBF representatives informed The Ring that next steps were being explored before another fight was ordered. The sanctioning body traditionally sends invitations for leading available contenders to accept and subsequently enter the negotiation period. This step is taken to avoid ordering multiple bouts just to get to one.

Mbilli, a French-Cameroonian based in Montreal, has earned three wins on the year to further advance in the super middleweight rankings.

The most significant came in his most recent outing.

Mbilli was extended all ten rounds in a unanimous decision over Sergiy Derevyanchenko (15-6, 10 KOs) on Aug. 17 in Quebec City, Canada. It snapped a three-fight knockout streak, which followed a ten-round points win over Carlos Gongora (21-1, 16 KOs at the time) last March.

The current IBF super middleweight titleholder is William Scull (23-0, 9 KOs), a Germany-based Cuban who is The Ring’s No. 6 contender. Scull is in the voluntary phase of his title reign while the IBF works to establish his next mandatory.