By BoxingInsider Editorial

At 3:02 on Monday morning in Riyadh, Turki Alalshikh posted a video of Canelo Alvarez walking through a hotel lobby past dancers in traditional Mexican dress, Oleksandr Usyk at his side. At 3:43, Saudi Civil Defense sent a mobile alert to every phone in the city: “A warning has been issued by the National Early Warning Platform in Riyadh City to alert of a potential danger.” At 3:54, the all-clear. At 4:58, the coalition spokesman posted that two ballistic missile launchers had been destroyed in Sanaa, and that “one of the two platforms was used to launch the ballistic missile on Riyadh.” At 4:05, in between, DAZN Boxing posted: “IT’S GO TIME!! Canelo has touched down.”

That is the first hour of fight week for Canelo Alvarez vs. Christian Mbilli, and it is not an exaggeration of anything. Every line of it is on a timestamped official account.

Boxing has staged fights in strange places and at strange times. It has not staged one like this: a WBC super middleweight title fight, a four-title card, and a week later a WWE premium live event, all in a capital city that has been targeted by ballistic missiles six days out of the last seven, during an ordered departure of American diplomats, while the host country’s defense minister sits in Tehran trying to negotiate the attacks to a stop.

Prince Khalid bin Salman arrived in Iran on Monday with Pakistan’s army chief and Turkey’s intelligence chief for consultations with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, a trip the Saudi Foreign Ministry described as an effort to “de-escalate” and to “prevent the return of military escalation,” according to Reuters. While that was being announced, the Houthis claimed attacks on the East-West crude pipeline and on Riyadh’s airport. The fight is Saturday.

The people running the events have been consistent, and they deserve to be quoted at length because they have not hedged. Alalshikh, October 11: “Canelo reached out and told me he’ll still fight in Riyadh this October, no matter what happens. He fears nothing.” He added: “Hard times reveal true friends.” Since then he has posted the fight week schedule, the face-off, the ticket link, the tale of the tape, and on Monday the individual arrivals of Rafael Espinoza, Carlos Emiliano Rojo and Saudi Arabia’s Sultan Almohammed, each captioned “The Venue Riyadh, October 31.” At 4 p.m. Monday he posted the Roman Reigns vs. Sami Zayn graphic for Crown Jewel, “November 7, Riyadh Season Stadium, KAFD. Book your ticket now.”

Dana White, asked at the UFC Edmonton press conference on October 17 whether UFC 333 in Abu Dhabi would go ahead given the regional situation: “Nope, we’re going. We go. I’ll be there with UFC, Power Slap’s going there twice, the WWE is going there. We’ll all be there.” Asked the next day whether the December 5 Riyadh card would move: “I go to Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, I have like six events in the next 30 days, in Saudi, Qatar and Abu Dhabi,” according to Athlon Sports. UFC 333 happened Saturday and set the Abu Dhabi attendance record. He was there.

Ari Emanuel, the TKO chairman and CEO who will make the Crown Jewel call, on Fox News Thursday: “Right now, everything is still set. So far so good. Nothing’s been cancelled. We have a whole team kind of working on this, and if that doesn’t happen, where we can move it. It’s a daily monitoring.”

And Alvarez, to Reuters in Riyadh on Monday: “I feel great. I can’t wait to step in the ring. I think my body needed that kind of rest.” On losing to Crawford: “Little mistakes are the difference between winning and losing. The week of the fight my mind wasn’t there.” On this week: “We learned from the best and Team Usyk helped me a lot. We’re going to show that on Saturday.” He was not asked about the sirens, or if he was, he did not answer, according to Reuters.

Those are the people who decided to go. The week is also defined by the people who could not, or who were not asked.

Lindolfo Delgado, 24-0, a 2016 Olympian from Linares who has spent five years on Top Rank undercards earning a shot at the vacant IBF junior welterweight title, is still in the United States. His trainer, Robert Garcia, said last Wednesday: “We don’t have no flights. We don’t have no information. So honestly, I don’t really know what’s going to happen.” On Monday at 3:57 a.m. GMT, Lance Pugmire posted that he was “told definitively that Delgado is off the Saudi card.” Dan Rafael’s source said “probably not.” Delgado’s opponent, Arthur Biyarslanov, arrived in Riyadh with his stablemate Mbilli by an alternate route, according to BoxingScene. Top Rank has said nothing. The IBF has said nothing. Riyadh Season has said nothing. A title fight that took a decade to earn appears to have been lost to an itinerary.

The DAZN announce team, per Rafael’s reporting, is expected to call the card from a studio in London rather than from ringside. DAZN has not commented. It is selling the fight in the United States for $79.99.

The US Embassy in Riyadh, in a security alert dated Saturday, now requires its own employees to get “special authorization from Chief of Mission to use any airport in Saudi Arabia,” lists ground transport alternatives by train and bus, and warns that “U.S. citizens have been detained for photographing government buildings, airports, and impact sites,” according to the US Mission to Saudi Arabia. Saudi Civil Defense’s all-clear messages end with the same instruction every time: “avoid gathering and filming.” For the reporters, photographers and content crews who normally fill a Canelo fight week, that is the ground rule.

WWE’s week looks the same from the outside. Crown Jewel remains advertised for November 7 with Reigns vs. Zayn, Liv Morgan vs. Chelsea Green and, since Friday, Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton in a Last Man Standing match. A fan video Friday showed the stage going up at the venue. Fightful Select reported Sunday that it has “heard from various talent and staff who aren’t happy” about the trip and that WWE is in “constant communication” with its hosts. Raw is live from Barclays Center on November 2 and back in Greenville, South Carolina, on November 9. In between, the roster flies to a city where the phones have gone off at 3:43 in the morning.

None of this is a secret and none of it is being hidden. Riyadh Season is posting the arrivals. The coalition is posting the interceptions. The embassy is posting the warnings. The fighters are posting that they are ready. All of it is true at the same time, which is what makes the week feel the way it does.

What boxing used to argue about during fight week was the scale, the referee, the judges, the ring size. This week the questions are whether the undercard can get a flight, whether the broadcasters will be in the building, and what the Saudi defense minister says to the Iranians on Monday afternoon. The sport did not choose that. It followed the money to a place where those are the questions, and now the fight is six days away and the challenger is in the lobby.

Mbilli, from the DAZN camp footage: “I am world champion right now, but I have to prove that I am number one.” Alvarez, from camp: “I think his style is perfect for me.” That is still the fight. It is just not the story this week.