On Saturday night in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the 36-year-old Mexican Saul “Canelo” Alvarez scored a comfortable win over WBC super-middleweight champion Christian Mbilli. The future Hall of Famer has opened up a plethora of future options and has one fight left on his existing deal with the Saudi Arabian powerbrokers. Here are some takeaways from Saturday.
1. Canelo’s still really good
It’s not that we didn’t know this, but there really were no signs of decline from what we’ve previously seen. It had been more than a year since his last fight, a defeat to Terence Crawford. Sure, Canelo might not be the same marauding force of his prime, but this more considered, adapted version of Canelo is more than a handful for the world’s leading super-middleweights, as Christian Mbilli discovered.
2. There is a difference between world level and elite
Mbilli was a good fighter who was, I would say, world level. He will beat most of the fighters in his weight class. Yes, he got the benefit of a dubious draw against Lester Martinez, but he’d start favourite over many fighters in his division, bar possibly Eye of the Tiger stablemate Osleys Iglesias and maybe Hamzah Sheeraz. Canelo, however, would open as favourite against all of them.
3. The person sitting next to Turki Alalshikh is super-interesting. Apparently
We all know how much Turki Alalshikh loves boxing and how much respect he has for all of the fighters. Well, if that’s the case, what does he make of the chap he sat next to in the front row, with whom he conversed almost all the way through the Mbilli-Canelo fight, scarcely looking at the ring?
Even during the few moments of drama in the fight, with many around him – including Oleksandr Usyk – standing to applaud or react to what was happening in the ring, Alalshikh remained rooted to the spot, chatting away, oblivious.
How can he expect people to be interested in his events all around the world if he can’t be bothered to watch when it’s happening three metres in front of him? There’s no way Canelo will find that respectful when he watches it back, at least until he starts counting his fight purse.
4. Money talks
Should the show have even gone ahead? Fortunately, despite the recent missile attacks in Saudi Arabia, it apparently passed without incident, and now those – like me – who felt the show should have gone elsewhere or been rescheduled can be gaslit into thinking it was perfectly okay for the show to have proceeded.
But there was a reason why Mexican, American and British nationals were advised against travelling to the region. There was a reason DAZN broadcast the event from London, and there was a reason why all of the non-TKO-related events were moved from the region, postponed or cancelled.
