Christian Mbilli weighed 167.8 pounds and Canelo Alvarez 167.6 at the ceremonial weigh-in in Boulevard City on Friday night, and the fight that has been the subject of three weeks of questions about everything except boxing is now a day away.
By the time they stepped on the scale, the building they will fight in had become the busiest address in Riyadh. Riyadh Season announced Friday that WWE Crown Jewel, pulled out of Riyadh Season Stadium on Wednesday with every ticket refunded, will be held November 7 “at The Venue,” the indoor hall where Alvarez challenges Mbilli for the WBC super middleweight title Saturday, according to PWTorch. Hours earlier, Turki Alalshikh had put tickets on sale for Zuffa Boxing 13, Carlos Adames vs. Jerome Warburton, November 14, “Riyadh, The Venue.” Boxing, wrestling, boxing, three Saturdays in a row, one roof. No one has said why the stadium is empty, and no one has been asked on the record.
Mbilli told the crowd he would beat Alvarez “everywhere,” on conditioning, punching and technique, and called Saturday “the fight of the decade.” Alvarez, 21 years to the day from his professional debut on Thursday, said the fight is “very important for me” and that he would teach Mbilli what it means to face someone like him. At Thursday’s press conference, delayed about twenty minutes by a Civil Defense alert that sent the city indoors while both fighters were already in the building, Alvarez had explained how the fight came to be. “I’m the challenger now, but in my mind, I’ve always been the champion, ever since I was a little kid,” he said. Alalshikh, he said, had offered him his choice of opponent. “I don’t believe in shortcuts. I want to become a world champion again, and that’s why I want to face the best. Mbilli is the world champion.”
Mbilli, who told The Ring earlier in the week that Alvarez “made a mistake” taking the fight, kept the respect and the threat in the same breath Thursday. “I have a lot of respect for Canelo and his career, and I congratulate him on everything he has achieved. But inside the ring, it will be a different story, and I’m coming to win,” he said. Asked about a knockout: “We’ll see, we’ll see. That’s why you shouldn’t miss the fight. There will be some big surprises.” Eddy Reynoso, marking the anniversary, said: “We will prove who the greatest boxer in Mexican history is, and we will celebrate that by winning the world title once again.” The two men’s last words to each other before the face-off were “Good luck. See you Saturday,” and “See you Saturday.”
WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman was on the dais, thanked from the stage for a 42-hour journey to get there. Two weeks ago he said it would be irresponsible for the organization’s fighters, judges and referees to be in Riyadh without him. He made the trip the long way, which this week is the only way. Robert Diaz, the former Golden Boy matchmaker whose wife Karla has worked for Alvarez for fifteen years, described the route to Uncrowned: Los Angeles to Rome, Rome to Qassim, then about four hours by road to Riyadh, arranged by the organizers. “It was alright,” Diaz said. “There’s been no indication that it would get cancelled.”
That is the same itinerary Robert Garcia turned down for Lindolfo Delgado. “Who does that in a world title fight?” Garcia said Monday. “We just couldn’t go.” Delgado’s vacant IBF junior welterweight title fight against Arthur Biyarslanov is the one bout the week cost. Biyarslanov’s manager, Jimmy Kambosos, told World Boxing News on Friday that his fighter has left Riyadh for home, that he will still get the vacant title shot later, and that 19 of the 20 fighters originally scheduled made it to the city. Neither Top Rank nor the IBF has commented. Rafael Espinoza, whose WBO featherweight defense is now against Ricardo Blandon, weighed 125.8 to Blandon’s 126; Jaime Munguia was 167.4 to Nikita Zon’s 167.5 for the WBA super middleweight title; David Picasso and Carl Martin were 125.8 and 126 for the WBC Silver belt; Reito Tsutsumi 129 and Raymundo Rojas Garcia 128.8; and Saudi Arabia’s Sultan Almohammed 131.2 to Erick Villegas’s 130.5. Everyone made weight.
The city did not take the day off. The coalition said Friday it intercepted and destroyed a drone over Riyadh and a ballistic missile headed for the southern region, after downing a drone near Makkah in the morning, according to Arab News. No damage was reported. Thursday night’s two missiles at Riyadh left a Saudi citizen with minor injuries and damaged a house and a vehicle, the first injury in the capital since the October 10 airport attack. The Houthis on Friday claimed six attacks including “multiple missiles” at King Khalid International, claims the coalition did not confirm. Riyadh has been targeted on most days since Alvarez landed Monday, as BoxingInsider has reported through the week.
DAZN has the card starting in the early afternoon in the United States, with the main event ring walk around 4:30 p.m. ET, roughly 11:30 p.m. in Riyadh. Dan Rafael’s report that the announce team will call it from a London studio has not been addressed by DAZN. The State Department’s advisory remains Level 3 with the ordered departure of non-emergency staff in effect; Canada told its citizens Thursday to avoid the Riyadh airport altogether.
Three weeks ago the question was whether this fight would happen. It is happening, in a hall that will host a wrestling show the following Saturday and another boxing card the one after that, with the champion at 167.8, the challenger at 167.6, and the man who sanctions it 42 hours of travel from home. Mbilli says he will win everywhere. Alvarez says he has always been the champion. One of them is right on Saturday.
