Eye of the Tiger

A financial-services detour into the fight business

Camille Estephan came to Montréal from Lebanon in 1986 as a teenager, his family leaving the civil war behind, and spent his early working life in financial services rather than anywhere near a ring. Boxing arrived in 2008 through a friendship with the heavyweight Bermane Stiverne, whom Estephan began to manage. The partnership reached its high point in 2014, when Stiverne took the WBC heavyweight title from Chris Arreola.

The Stiverne years also ended Estephan's patience with somebody else's promotional model. After falling out with Don King in 2015 over how the fighter was being handled, he moved out of management and set up Eye of the Tiger Management as a promoter in its own right. By 2017 it had displaced Yvon Michel's GYM as the busiest promotional company in Montréal, a shift that took roughly two years and a lot of small rooms.

The early roster was largely local or Canadian: David Lemieux, Steven Butler, Dierry Jean, Batyr Jukembayev, Erik Bazinyan, Custio Clayton and Yves Ulysse. Shows were split between the Bell Centre for the bigger nights, the casino in Montréal for the regular ones, and regional venues such as Shawinigan. The Fight City's read on the scene at that point was blunt — plenty of depth, no marquee name at home, with Adonis Stevenson and Artur Beterbiev both fighting under other banners.

The stable stopped being local

The roster that Estephan runs now is an import operation with a Québec base. The Cuban super-middleweight Osleys Iglesias, who lives and trains in Berlin, is the company's current world champion. The Cuban cruiserweight Lenar Perez, the French super-middleweight Christian Mbilli, the Russian heavyweight Arslanbek Makhmudov and the Venezuelan light-heavyweight Albert Ramirez all fight under the same banner, and all four have had title business in 2026.

Around them sits the home-grown half of the card: Wilkens Mathieu, who turned 21 this year and holds the NABF super-middleweight belt; Leïla Beaudoin, the interim WBA super-featherweight champion; Steven Butler and Erik Bazinyan, both still active a decade after they were the company's prospects; and a queue of unbeaten novices — Avery Martin Duval, Wyatt Sanford, Keven Beausejour, Nickenson Denis — who fill the opening bouts.

Estephan's tip for the year, given to Boxing Social before the season started, was Perez. It aged well.

The 2026 season, fight by fight

The year opened on 5 February at the Cabaret du Casino de Montréal with Ramirez making the first defence of his WBA interim light-heavyweight title against the Englishman Lerrone Richards.

On 9 April, in the same room, Iglesias took the vacant IBF super-middleweight title and kept his IBO belt when Pavel Silyagin retired on his stool after eight rounds. Iglesias moved to 15-0 with 14 stoppages; Silyagin took the first defeat of a 16-0-1 career. The undercard did what the company's undercards tend to do — Arthur Biyarslanov stopped Jimerr Espinosa in the seventh to keep his NABF super-lightweight title, Luis Santana took a vacant NABF lightweight belt on a split decision, and Beaudoin shut out Victoria Noelia Bustos 100-90 on all three cards.

Two days later the company had a fighter in a stadium. Makhmudov was the opponent for Tyson Fury's comeback at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on 11 April, in front of 64,500 people and a Netflix audience that averaged five million viewers in the United Kingdom alone. Fury won a wide unanimous decision, 120-108, 120-108 and 119-109. It was a loss, but it was also the largest platform any Eye of the Tiger fighter had worked on.

The most recent show was 3 September at the Casino de Montréal, seven fights, streamed on Punching Grace in Québec and DAZN elsewhere. Perez was dropped by a right hook from Thabiso Mchunu in the fifth, watched Mchunu take a knee in the sixth, then put the South African down twice in the eighth to force the stoppage and keep his WBA Continental Americas title. Moreno Fendero took the only decision of the night, 99-90, 97-92 and 99-90 over Stephane Fondjo. The other five bouts all ended inside four rounds.

Mbilli, Canelo, and the ceiling

The company's biggest night of the year is not one it promotes. Mbilli, elevated to full WBC super-middleweight champion earlier in 2026 and unbeaten at 29-0-1 with 24 stoppages, defends against Canelo Álvarez in Riyadh on 31 October. The fight was first set for 12 September and was pushed back after Álvarez said family problems had delayed his camp; it will be the Mexican's first appearance since losing a decision to Terence Crawford in September 2025.

That fixture is the clearest measure of what Estephan's model is for. The Montréal and Québec City shows are where fighters are built and where belts of increasing seriousness are collected; Riyadh, or Tottenham, is where the company cashes them. Nothing about the domestic schedule changes to accommodate it — the 8 October card in Québec City was announced and put on sale while the Riyadh date was still being renegotiated.

The two dates on sale

The first is 8 October at the Théâtre Capitole in Québec City, and it is the largest card the company has attempted in the province: eight bouts with nine championship belts on the line, three of them world titles. Iglesias defends his unified IBF and IBO super-middleweight titles against the unbeaten Dane Oliver Zaren, 19-0-1 with eight stoppages, who is now trained by Mikkel Kessler and would be the first Danish world champion since his own coach. Mathieu, 16-0, puts his NABF belt against the experienced Vladimir Shishkin in the co-feature. Beaudoin defends her interim WBA super-featherweight title, Imam Khataev his NABF light-heavyweight title, and Thomas Chabot fights for the WBC Continental featherweight belt. Estephan has called nine titles on a single Québec card an unprecedented achievement, which, for once, is a claim with a countable basis. One bout, Erik Israyelyan against Jesse Frank Sallows, has already come off the card; Daylen Pepin against Matias Pinilla was confirmed in its place.

The second is 12 November, back at the Cabaret du Casino de Montréal. Jhon Orobio, 19-0 with 17 stoppages and fresh from a fourth-round stoppage of Antonio Moran in September, headlines for the first time at super-lightweight — Estephan said he had made it a point of honour to give Orobio the main event after that performance. Perez, now 17-0, is in the co-main. Underneath them sits the fight with the most local history attached to it: Butler against Bazinyan, two Québec middleweights who have been on the company's cards since the beginning and have never met. Martin Duval, Sanford, Beausejour and Denis fill out the undercard. Opponents for several bouts had still to be announced at the end of September.

How the shows actually get watched

The distribution is split three ways and has been consistent all year. Main cards stream on Punching Grace within Québec, DAZN carries them internationally, and TVA Sports takes undercard coverage for the November date. Tickets for both remaining shows go through Ticketmaster.

The venues are chosen for density rather than capacity. The Cabaret du Casino de Montréal is a theatre room, not an arena, and the Théâtre Capitole is an older house with the seating close to the ring — which is why the company can put a world title in front of a few hundred people and still have it look like an occasion on camera. The Bell Centre remains available for the rare night that warrants it, but nothing in 2026 has been staged there.