The fight between Canelo Álvarez and Christian Mbili, which was initially scheduled to take place on September 12 in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) before being postponed, now has a new date. As Canelo stated during the ‘The Ariel Helwani Show’ program, the WBC super middleweight title bout will take place on October 31. That said, it is still too early to specify the location of the contest—although the idea is for it to remain in Riyadh—because the war between the United States and Iran has resumed, and it is affecting Saudi Arabia.
‘During the program, the former Mexican champion explained the reasons for the postponement. “There were some issues with my family that I had to sort out, but everything is fine now. I have always been very disciplined and organized with my training, and I wasn’t ready to go to camp. That’s why I postponed the fight, because I had to take care of my family first, but everything is fine now and I’m ready to train. Now it will be on October 31,” Álvarez confessed.’
Although these are not the traditional dates when Canelo fights to coincide with Mexican national holidays (May and September), the boxer has chosen a significant day, and the attraction will be that the fight takes place on the Day of the Dead weekend.
Let’s remember that Canelo, 36, last fought on September 13, 2025, being defeated that day by Terence Crawford by unanimous decision. Mbili, 31, had his last bout on the same card against Lester Martínez, which ended in a draw. The WBC champion title went to the French fighter of Cameroonian origin once Crawford vacated it.
During the interview with Helwani, the name of David Benavidez also came up, as he has been asking for a fight with Canelo for several years. The Guadalajara native explained: “He’s a heavyweight fighting at 175 pounds, or cruiserweight, or something like that. But he’s a heavyweight. It’s not fair. When I became undisputed champion, if he had been champion at that time, that would have been the right time for the fight. But he wasn’t, and back then he was fighting at 168 pounds, but he wasn’t a champion.” Based on his words, the Canelo-Benavidez fight now seems more than ruled out.
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