Canelo Alvarez Delays Christian Mbilli Fight To October 31

The four-division champion says family matters forced him to postpone training camp and now targets an October 31 title fight with WBC champion Christian Mbilli.

Canelo Alvarez says family responsibilities forced him to postpone his planned challenge for Christian Mbilli’s WBC super middleweight title. The four-division champion has now resumed preparations and is targeting October 31 for one of the year’s biggest championship fights.

“Some problems in my family that I need to fix, but everything is good. But I always am very disciplined, organized with my training camps, and I wasn’t ready to be in the training camp. So that’s why I postponed that fight because I needed to attend to my family first. But all good now; I’m ready to train, and we’re going to be all good on October 31. Yeah, Halloween, that’s the new date,” said Canelo on the Ariel Helwani show.

“Yeah, because I wasn’t ready to go into the training camp. When it’s family, you need to attend to the family. So, that’s why. But now, I’m all good and ready to train. I like those days because it’s very important for me. But for me, every day is Mexican Day. I feel very proud of representing Mexico. I feel proud about representing my country and my people. Any day is good, and especially for these kinds of fights. It’s good fight, and I’m ready to come back.

“We don’t decide yet if it’s going to be in Riyadh. We’re going to decide which venue and place.”

Canelo, 36, traditionally fights on Cinco de Mayo weekend or Mexican Independence Day weekend. He missed the Cinco de Mayo date earlier this year while recovering from elbow surgery. The move to October means he also won’t compete on Mexican Independence Day weekend, although Alvarez said he takes pride in representing Mexico regardless of the date.

The Halloween date gives Canelo extra time to prepare for Mbilli, who claimed the WBC super middleweight title earlier this month. The venue remains undecided, with Riyadh still under consideration for one of boxing’s biggest championship fights of the year.