Canelo Alvarez has never talked about Christian Mbilli this way. The dismissive remarks sound less like genuine confidence and more like irritation that the public actually believes Mbilli can beat him on October 31 in Riyadh.

“There’s no way he can fight like that because I’m not [Lester] Martinez,” Canelo said. “They took and threw punches like crazy, and they are strong, of course, but that’s not boxing,” he told DAZN during its “Face Off” preview.

“It’s just a different level. He’s going to find out. I love that style, and he’s strong. He knows he’s going to come forward, and I love that style because he’s going to be a lot of action, and I think you can fight a better fight. So, and yes, I love it.”

Canelo is right that he is nothing like Lester Martinez, but not for the reasons he thinks. Martinez is younger, naturally suited for the 168-pound division, and capable of maintaining heavy fire without demanding long respites. Canelo has never worked at the relentless clip Martinez and Mbilli generated in September 2025.

Mbilli also deserved better than the majority draw against Martinez. Martinez repeatedly shoved him back to flee close-quarters combat. Stricter refereeing would have penalized Martinez and kept him trapped inside the phone booth where Mbilli operates best.

Canelo has leaned heavily on resting against the ropes behind a high clamshell guard. Jaime Munguia and Edgar Berlanga offered predictable targets, firing textbook combinations and pausing long enough for Canelo to crack them with sharp counters.

Mbilli brings ugly, suffocating violence. He clubs looping hooks past the gloves, digs into the ribs, and hammers away at the arms. When Canelo backs into the cables to catch his breath, Mbilli will not politely step back after a three-punch flurry. He will keep firing until Canelo is forced to return fire or run.

Catching him with one clean counter will not solve the riddle. Mbilli absorbed flush bombs from Sergiy Derevyanchenko and Martinez without giving up an inch of ground. Canelo relies on his power to make opponents hesitant, earning the quiet intervals he needs to preserve his energy.

When Mbilli keeps swinging through return fire, Canelo will find himself dragged into the grueling war he has evaded for seasons. The Mexican star has suffered from mid-round breathers throughout his career. Mbilli can easily steal those rounds on sheer volume alone, regardless of how clean Canelo’s isolated shots appear.

Fans backing Gennadiy Golovkin to defeat Canelo years ago made complete sense. Golovkin was a terrifying puncher, an authentic middleweight, and a widely revered champion. Mbilli does not hold that prestige.

Backing Mbilli reveals the public perception of Canelo in 2026. Observers see a 36-year-old coming off a defeat to Terence Crawford, throwing fewer punches each outing, and staring down a rugged pressure fighter who refuses to grant him quiet moments.

Canelo’s matchmaking path invites that skepticism. Munguia, Berlanga, William Scull, Crawford, Jermell Charlo, and Billy Joe Saunders were not the most dangerous operators at super middleweight.

Canelo went out of his way to bypass David Benavidez, David Morrell, Lester Martinez, Osleys Iglesias, Diego Pacheco, Kevin Lele Sadjo, Bektemir Melikuziev, and Jacob Bank. That group offered youth, physical size, concussive power, and relentless forward pressure.

Bringing Oleksandr Usyk into training camp signals that Canelo understands the threat. Usyk thrives on relentless lateral footwork, sharp angles, and distance control. Enlisting Usyk proves Canelo knows that standing flat-footed against Mbilli is tactical suicide.

Loud words will not convince Mbilli to alter his identity. Relentless aggression is his calling card, and headlining the biggest event of his life provides every incentive to attack with reckless abandon. Canelo claims Mbilli requires ten versions of himself to pull off an upset. His reaction and his camp decisions reveal that a single Christian Mbilli is already consuming his thoughts.

That dismissive reaction during the DAZN preview was a dead giveaway. When a fighter starts preaching about how an opponent “doesn’t know real boxing” or claims the guy needs ten clones of himself to win, that is not calm supremacy talking. That is pure ego acting as armor because the doubt is creeping in.

He spent years insulating himself with opponents who either lacked the physical engine to drown him or were too small to hurt him. He could play the veteran master against Berlanga and Munguia because they respected his counters, stood at mid-range, and offered rhythmic breathing room. But Crawford stripped away that aura completely. Crawford showed the world that Canelo’s punch output has cratered and that an aging star cannot just bank rounds on reputation and isolated power shots anymore.

Now he faces Mbilli, a fighter who does not care about the sweet science aesthetics or Canelo’s legacy. Mbilli is built to exploit every single physical decline Canelo is trying to hide. The pacing issue is catastrophic. Mbilli throws relentlessly without conscience. Even in his physical prime, Canelo fought in brief spurts, often stealing rounds in the final thirty seconds after taking the first two minutes off. At 36, against a guy who works three minutes of every round, those rest periods become lost rounds on every judge’s card.

Ryan Garcia faces a choice between taking a December date with Isaac Cruz or holding out for a clash with Teofimo Lopez. The second route is complicated by Lopez’s mandatory WBA obligation involving Jack Catterall.

Cruz called for Ryan after stopping Nestor Bravo in six rounds Saturday night in San Diego. Ryan quickly accepted and indicated that an offer would follow.

Preliminary discussions have taken place between representatives for Ryan and Lopez. Chris Mannix revealed that talks have targeted February 6, 2027, at Madison Square Garden.

“There have been conversations between the representatives of Garcia and Lopez about making a Garcia versus Lopez fight, to the point where the conversations even got to a spot where they talked about a date, which is early February. I think February 6th is the date that I was told, and the location is Madison Square Garden in New York City,” said Mannix on his channel.

Mannix prefers Ryan to skip Cruz and go directly into the Teofimo bout. That route assumes the WBA will permit Lopez to bypass Catterall, who defeated Shakhram Giyasov to secure his mandatory claim.

Matchroom has sent formal legal letters urging the sanctioning body to enforce its ruling. Eddie Hearn argues that Catterall’s status carried over with the belt from Rolando Romero to Teofimo. Team Lopez claims the directive applied strictly to Romero and no longer binds the new titleholder.

Mannix’s February target ignores the governing body timeline. Unless Ryan meets Teofimo prior to Catterall’s cited November window, Teofimo must satisfy that mandatory defense. Negotiations, a potential purse bid, a full camp, and physical recovery would make February 6 impractical.

Catterall also represents a stylistic danger for Teofimo. The British southpaw controls distance with a disciplined jab, employs lateral movement and scores with counters without retreating into a shell. He has a clear blueprint in Shakur Stevenson’s showing against Teofimo. Teofimo relies on a predictable pattern. He presses forward like an incoming tide to unleash combinations before resetting straight back. That approach gives a poised counterpuncher like Catterall clean opportunities to time him. Teofimo risks losing the belt before Ryan ever gets him in the ring.

If Teofimo chooses to vacate instead, the matchup with Ryan loses its title prestige and strips Teofimo of negotiating power. Ryan generates massive arena business on his own name. Lopez relies on Ryan to produce a career-high purse.

Waiting on Teofimo introduces ring rust for Ryan. Lengthy layoffs have disrupted Ryan’s timing throughout his career, and sanctioning body disputes rarely resolve quickly. A December fight keeps him sharp while cashing another substantial check.

Pitbull Cruz brings action appeal, yet remains vulnerable to Ryan’s weapons. The short pressure fighter moves forward behind an earmuff guard and lunges inside. Ryan possesses the straight right to split that defense and the check left hook to catch Cruz in mid-leap. That physical contrast grows sharper once Ryan hydrates up into middleweight territory on fight night.

Teofimo delivers the steeper tactical hurdle. He possesses the lateral agility to circle away from Ryan’s hook, the upper body slip to evade incoming right hands, and the counterpunching ability to punish an upright target.

Mannix viewed Cruz as a distraction on the road to Lopez. Catterall stands as the real roadblock. Ryan can face Cruz in December while Lopez sorts through his WBA mess. If Teofimo still possesses the belt when the dust clears, Madison Square Garden will still be waiting.

The WBA already shredded its own credibility by sanctioning Teofimo against Rolly Romero in the first place. Giving an immediate shot at a secondary belt to a fighter coming straight off a wide points loss to Shakur Stevenson made a mockery of the ratings. The only justification offered was the commercial value of putting two loud talkers on pay-per-view.

Now Gilberto Mendoza is caught in the trap he created. That July 9 message to Catterall, explicitly telling him he would get the winner of Rolly versus Teofimo within 180 days, puts the WBA president on the record. Matchroom’s legal team has documented proof that Catterall took the risk, beat Shakhram Giyasov, and earned his status in a sanctioned eliminator.

From a sporting standpoint, letting Teofimo bypass Catterall looks terrible. It signals that mandatory positions only exist for contenders who lack the leverage to be ignored. Teofimo arguing that his name was not on the original paperwork is classic promoter double-talk. Mandatory obligations belong to the championship belt, not the individual holding it. If a title changes hands, the new champion inherits the baggage attached to the hardware.

Despite how ugly it looks, the WBA will almost certainly look for an escape hatch if Ryan Garcia and Lopez finalize terms. Sanctioning bodies operate on percentages of total fight purses. A percentage of a Ryan Garcia pay-per-view at Madison Square Garden generates massive revenue for the WBA. A low-profile mandatory defense between Lopez and Catterall in Manchester or New York pays a tiny fraction of that amount.

Three years after Turki Alalshikh arrived with the intention of fixing boxing, veteran reporter Dan Rafael has delivered a damning assessment of where the sport stands today.

Asked whether boxing is currently in the worst state he has witnessed during his decades covering the sport, the former World Boxing News lead writer was unequivocal and brutal.

“Absolutely and it’s not close.”

Alalshikh entered boxing with Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou in 2023 and began spending Saudi money on fights promoters had previously struggled to make.

The 2023 Vision

From the beginning, he was clear about what he wanted to achieve.

“The vision of 2023, in our country, is to do and deliver to the market the best fights with good [Pay Per View] prices and make the fights that people want to see,” Alalshikh said.

After spending six months testing the boxing market, Alalshikh went even further.

“You must improve the market. You must fix all the problems.”

There is no denying what followed. Alalshikh delivered major events, helped make Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk and gave fighters paydays they may never have received under the traditional system.

Alalshikh later described boxing as broken and said the kind of low-risk fights he called “Tom and Jerry fights” were something he wanted to change.

Crucially, Alalshikh also succeeded in bringing rival promoters together. Hearn and Warren went from competing against each other to working on the same Saudi-backed events.

Three years later, however, boxing may have more problems than when he arrived.

The Saudi Money Problem

The latest example came with Hamzah Sheeraz, who relinquished his WBO super middleweight title rather than face Janibek Alimkhanuly after Queensberry won the purse bid.

Sheeraz stood to receive $751,356.75 under the WBO split, considerably less than the Saudi-backed purses he had become accustomed to earning.

Rafael summed up the problem when somebody suggested Sheeraz was being offered short money.

“It’s not short money. It’s the actual market assessing his value.”

There is nothing wrong with fighters accepting life-changing Saudi money. The problem comes when those purses become the expectation and the traditional market cannot reproduce them.

That is only one part of the current mess.

Another Divide Is Coming

Rafael’s damning assessment comes amid the Zuffa/TKO Ali Act fight that could change boxing completely.

The Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act has advanced out of the Senate Commerce Committee and would allow league-style Unified Boxing Organizations to operate alongside traditional promoters.

Zuffa Boxing titles have already entered the sport, although there is currently only one champion. Once the TKO league is fully established, with rankings in every division and the major numbered pay-per-views underway, only then will boxing truly know what it is dealing with.

Fury vs Joshua Debacle

The Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua debacle has added another layer. Dana White and TKO became involved as the United States emerged as a possible destination, while Eddie Hearn fought to preserve Joshua’s agreement for the biggest British heavyweight fight in decades to happen in the UK.

Alalshikh also publicly preferred the United States before the fight moved back toward Britain.

Hearn and Frank Warren were central to the original Saudi boxing boom. Alalshikh now appears to favor working closely with TKO and Zuffa, leaving boxing facing another potential divide depending on how much Saudi money remains available.

That question has become even more significant after another PIF-backed sporting venture, LIV Golf, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this month. LIV is restructuring rather than disappearing, but PIF has decided to discontinue its funding after the 2026 season.

Boxing’s Future Investment

WBN has already reported that boxing does not feature among the core investment pillars in PIF’s current strategy through 2030. Alalshikh has also publicly discussed his health and fears over what his condition could mean by 2028 or 2029.

Nobody knows what the financial picture will look like by then.

What boxing does know is that three years of enormous spending made fights that previously seemed impossible, but it did not fix the sport underneath them.

Rafael’s assessment may be brutal, but boxing in September 2026 looks a long way from the sport Alalshikh set out to fix.

About the Author

Phil Jay is the Editor-in-Chief of World Boxing News (WBN), a BWAA-acknowledged boxing news website founded in 2010. A veteran boxing reporter with 16 years of experience, he has interviewed world champions, broken international exclusives, and reported ringside from major events. His work is published worldwide through WBN and distributed on platforms including Apple News.

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