Christian Mbilli is no longer a name on a wish list. Canelo Álvarez fights him this Saturday, Oct. 31, at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and the belt on the line is Mbilli’s WBC super middleweight title.
beIN SPORTS ran the headline calling Mbilli the undefeated champion set to be Canelo’s next opponent. The fight card published by MMA Mania confirms the date, the venue and the stakes, and it lists Mbilli at 29-0-1 going in. The event is billed as “Mexico vs. The World.”
The framing is worth sitting with for a second. When Canelo met Gennadiy Golovkin in Las Vegas in September 2022, it was for the undisputed super middleweight title. This time the guy with the green belt and the zero in the loss column is the defending champion, and Canelo is the one walking across the ring to take something.
The card
The DAZN pay-per-view main card starts at 2 p.m. ET. Jaime Munguia (46-2) fights Nikita Zon (12-0-1) at 168, which means two super middlewoights on the same show with ties to the Canelo conversation. Rafael Espinoza (28-0) defends his WBO featherweight title against Ricardo Blandon (21-6), and David Picasso (33-1-1) meets Carl Jammes Martin (28-0) at 122 in a fight between two guys who are a combined 61-1-1.
Further down, unbeaten 168-pounders Bek Nurmaganbet (16-0) and Brayan Leon (12-0) are both in action.
The part nobody wants to talk about
The bigger story this week has been whether the show happens at all. MMA Mania reported growing pressure to reschedule as Houthi forces keep launching missiles, bombs and drones at targets in Saudi Arabia, with King Khalid International Airport hit multiple times.
The U.S. Embassy issued a security alert advising non-emergency personnel to leave. Part of it read: “Please take extreme caution if you choose to use airports in Saudi Arabia.”
Turki Alalshikh, the Saudi power broker behind the event, has said Canelo fears nothing and the fight will go ahead as planned. Per MMA Mania, Canelo and his team will be flying through a private airport.
The UFC side is taking the same posture. Dana White, asked after UFC 333 in Abu Dhabi about other leagues running events in the region, said he’d never felt unsafe there and added, “We go. We go.” UFC Qatar is set for Nov. 21 and UFC Saudi Arabia for Dec. 5.
Quick take
I like any fight where the champion is the less famous guy and the star has to go take the belt off him. That’s how this sport is supposed to work. Mbilli gets the payday of his life and the chance to make Canelo look old, and Canelo gets a real titleholder with a perfect record instead of a hand-picked tune-up. The boxing is easy to get excited about. The airspace is the thing I’ll be watching, because the opening bell is booked for 2 p.m. ET Saturday and the Embassy is telling people to check whether their flight still exists.
