Turki Alalshikh said Sunday that Canelo Alvarez has told him he will go ahead with his October 31 fight in Riyadh, days after missile attacks on the Saudi capital’s main airport killed several people and raised doubts across the sport about whether the card could take place.
“Canelo reached out and told me he’ll still fight in Riyadh this October, no matter what happens,” Alalshikh wrote on X. “He fears nothing.”
The chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority went on to describe his country as a “land of peace, safety, rich civilization, deep history, and kind-hearted people,” thanked those who had checked in, and closed with a line that will be read closely around boxing: “Hard times reveal true friends.”
Alvarez has not yet commented publicly. For now, his position is known only through Alalshikh’s account of their conversation.
Saudi authorities said three people were killed earlier in the week in attacks on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh and Abha International Airport in the south of the country. A second round of strikes on King Khalid on Thursday killed three Saudi nationals, among them a pilot for the national carrier, according to Al Jazeera. Yemen’s Ansar Allah movement claimed responsibility and warned airlines “for the last time” to stay out of Saudi airspace.
Saudi aviation officials have since said that operations at the airport are back to normal. Several carriers delayed or cancelled Riyadh flights during the week.
Alvarez (63-3-2, 39 KOs) is scheduled to challenge Christian Mbilli for the WBC super middleweight title at The Venue in Riyadh, live on DAZN pay-per-view. Tickets went on sale last month under the banner Mexico vs. The World. The bout was first set for September 12 and moved to Halloween night after Alvarez said he needed to resolve family matters before starting camp. He has been training in Spain.
It is also the final fight of the four-fight agreement Alvarez signed with Riyadh Season in 2025, a deal that ESPN reported at the time was planned to end in Riyadh in October 2026.
That structure matters. In most major fights, the promoter, the site and the money are three different parties, and a decision to postpone or relocate is shared among them. Here they are effectively one. Riyadh Season is the organizer, the host and the financier, which means the call on whether October 31 goes ahead as planned rests in one place.
Talk of a fallback has been circulating since late September. Outlets in Mexico and France have reported a scenario in which the fight would move to T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on November 21. None of that has been confirmed by Riyadh Season, DAZN or either camp. Zanfer Boxing, which promotes fighters linked to the undercard, said at the time that it had received no official notice of any change.
Not everyone in the sport is convinced the original plan should hold. “They’d be crazy to stage Canelo-Mbilli in Saudi,” broadcaster Dan Canobbio wrote on X as the attacks unfolded.
Alalshikh’s statement is the clearest signal yet of where the organizers stand. Several questions remain open: what Mbilli and his team have been told, how officials, undercard fighters and broadcast crews will travel, and whether the full card has been finalized. The fight is less than three weeks away.
