Saul “Canelo” Alvarez returned to boxing this past Saturday to remind the sport that, even at the age of 36, he not only still has it, but can still use it to resist any remaining challengers in the super middleweight division.
Christian Mbilli may have walked away with the WBC world championship against “Canelo”, but the Mexican who left Riyadh with the belt, Mbilli has pointed out.
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Here are five things we learned from the fight, and Saturday’s event as a whole.
1. ‘Canelo’ deserves credit for taming Mbilli
Mbilli entered the Arena Kingdom with a reputation as a relentless, physically imposing fighter.
The easy interpretation of how ineffective against “Canelo” appeared, when comparing Mbilli to draw with Lester Martinez in 2025, and Sergey Derevyenchenko could win in 2024, could have been affected by the stage, the opponent, or a combination of both.
Compubox data suggests Mbilli attempted but landed far fewer punches per round on “Canelo” (10.6 shots on average) than he landed on Derevyanchenko (21.5) and Martinez (27.3). Mbilli’s striking accuracy was roughly halved to 17.5%, from 30.9% (against Derevyanchenko) and 34.7% (against Martinez).
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Mbilli landed more jabs against Alvarez (29.3) than against Derevyanchenko (25), but threw fewer power punches (31.1 against 44.6) — consistent with a fighter struggling to get any offense going.
Mbilli’s output increased in the second part of the fight “Canelo”, from 57.2 punches per round in the middle of six rounds, up to 63.5 in rounds seven to 12. Accuracy, though, remained poor – he threw 38 more punches in the last six rounds, just one more than he did in the first part, despite the added sense of urgency.
Canelo Alvarez (R) dominated Christian Mbilli in the long run for his WBC super middleweight world championship.
(FAYEZ NURELDINE via Getty Images)
For years, it was a consensus that fighters in and around the middleweight division would stop at meaningful challenges while waiting for “Canelo’s” shoulders to act, only to last that night if Alvarez agreed to fight with them. But with Mbilli the case was not so clear, no.
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But “Canelo” deserves credit for thwarting Mbilli’s greatest weapon – the relentless attack – through the effectiveness of his set-up, defensive positioning and counter-pulse mentality.
Alvarez dictated his pace as he allowed Mbilli to impose his usual high-volume attack, making him increasingly reluctant to initiate exchanges.
He may be removed from the prime of his power at the age of 36, but “Canelo” remains old enough to solve problems in the ring against the rest of the division.
2. Munguia may have had an anti-reynoso fighter Eddy
Alvarez’s long-time trainer/manager, Eddy Reynoso, is synonymous with the champion’s primary training of defensive, calculated pressure, and striking abilities.
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However, all of those qualities were notably absent from Reynoso’s other fighter, Jaime Munguia, who competed against Nikita Zon on Saturday’s show.
Although Munguia survived the scare in the sixth round, he eventually defeated Zon and retained his WBA super middleweight title on the scorecards through the experience of fighting in the championship rounds.
Munguia remains a high-flying, vulnerable, contentious champion who relies on his toughness to survive the problems that his boldness seems to create.
In the opening rounds, Zon roughhoused Munguia, disrupting the rhythm of the field and finding openings with his punches, leading Munguia into a dirty, stupid, but entertaining fight. Munguia hurt Zon in the fifth, but in the sixth they turned around — Zon rocked the Mexican with a chin-checking uppercut, and the onslaught was sustained by referee Tony Weeks, who appeared close to throwing up.
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But Munguia survived. He collected himself, and even seemed to hurt Zon before the bell, one of the vigils in the action of the year.
From there, Munguia continued aggressively into Zoni’s body and led the other side of the battle against the fallen Russian.
He won by unanimous decision, but the scores of 117-111 (twice) and 116-112 hide how close Munguia came to disaster.
He has the benefit of three thirty-year camps under Reynoso’s watch. Despite training alongside “Canelo”, Munguia’s fundamental weaknesses remain before his fight. It is vulnerable to uppercuts. found in exchanges. And he struggles with defense.
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Munguia’s next opponent may well make up for those shortcomings, as the challenger for the WBA mandate is Bektemir Melikuziev, who is expected to fight for Munguia’s title in 2027.
A stronger, more disciplined and more skilled fighter could accomplish the task that Zon could not. Whether Melikuziev is that fighter remains to be seen.
3. Will the real Alvarez stand at 168 pounds to please the challengers?
Keeping with Munguia for a little longer, yes, he may have the WBA belt, but with “Canelo” as his training partner, it makes him an unlikely future opponent. Losing himself to “Canelo” as recently as 2024 only hurts his chances even more.
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Reynoso told Ring Magazine Earlier this year, Alvarez prefers to fight at 168 pounds, while moves to other weight classes are unlikely, at least for now.
The super middleweight type leaves full names that are unheard of, unproven, or empty.
Super middleweight champions Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Jaime Munguia are teammates.
(Cris Esqueda/Golden Boy via Getty Images)
So is Hamzah Sheeraz – the 6-foot-3 British contender who eliminated Edgar Berlanga in 2025. And his size, his power alone could present interesting questions for “Canelo”.
But Sheeraz was flattered to deceive in the subsequent fight – a major part of Simon Zachenhuber’s winning decision. So it is unclear whether Sheeraz will be as hot as he was last year, or if he will be a mere hit in 2026.
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The WBC’s most deserving challenger is arguably Lester Martinez who, as the interim champion, has a natural path to Alvarez’s recently acquired title. Although Martinez’s international profile is limited, and yet he has wins over Immanuwel Aleem (decision) and Luka Plantic (knockout), the split drawn in 2025 with Mbilli – the fighter that “Canelo” romped over – makes it difficult to present himself as a man capable of doing what his former rival neglected.
That leaves Osleys Iglesias, who is perhaps the most dangerous opponent of all. A 28-year-old southpaw, Iglesias is the IBF super middleweight world champion. He stopped 15 of his 16 opponents and recently defeated Oliver Zaren in seven rounds on Oct. 8.
He’s technically built, powerful and poses another challenge from fighters “Canelo” has beaten many times. Iglesias has clearly called for a special fight with “Canelo,” but the commercial figure lacks the big names in boxing.
Iglesias can be dangerous, Martinez can earn, and Sheeraz can have physical advantages, but there is no immediate “Canelo” with an obvious blocker.
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4. Dana White remains the point of boxing production president
UFC CEO and Zuffa Boxing co-founder Dana White has long been a fan of boxing radio production. And the old comments about the nature of the game’s handling of things rang even truer on Saturday, when Canelo-Mbilli was seen cutting his pay for training sessions, sometimes for unnecessarily long hours.
“These guys will do the fight, and then the af***ing podcast comes on for an hour and thirty minutes before the next f***ing fight,” he told reporters at Alba 2024. That place only when he repeated.
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For too long on Saturday, DAZN has been getting an analysis of the studio for its money, with a sprinkling of competition between shows. We could skip from one major fight to the next, but have viewers suffer extended studio discussions, recycled interviews, behind-the-scenes announcements, promotional packages and filler of sorts.
And that’s not to knock DAZN’s Kate Abdo and Chris Mannix, both of whom are experienced and involved in radio. It’s dealing with the organizers designing these shows and dictating the running order that can’t be seen to deviate from if and when they are.
Not just Canelo-Mbilli either, like Julio’s Anthony Joshua vs. Kristian Prenga happened, it was also hellishly long when, in the 10th fight, it was not necessary.
Boxing doesn’t even need to see the UFC’s ranking to get it right, either. The Real American Freestyle and Bare Knuckle Fighting Championships are also banging one after the other, observing the time commitment from the fans.
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All of Saturday’s bloated panel tests were presented in white with the most vicious arguments about boxing.
Turki Alalshikh and UFC CEO Dana White do not appear to be aligned on the issue of pacification.
(Chris Unger via Getty Images)
5. A business without business is not a business without risk
By the time most, if not all, fighters, teams and production crews have arrived in Riyadh, they may have the same message sent to cell phones in the city on Oct. 29.
“Warning,” the message said. “The city of Riyadh is under a hostile air threat. Please stay calm in the morning, stay inside or leave the windows and doors in a safe place, and follow the rules of civil defense.”
The second was sent a week after the fight week.
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Government officials have advised crowds, large gatherings to be avoided, and potential public areas to be shelled due to the imminent danger of Houthi-led missile attacks.
The deadly threat has already been proven, as Reuters reported earlier in October that an attack on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport killed at least 12 people and wounded more than 300. A subsequent attack killed another man and injured nearly a dozen more.
This was a threat to security stability, not speculative terrorism, as foreign governments around the world warned against non-essential travel to Saudi Arabia.
The contradiction, proceeding from the relative inconsistencies of the games, is absurd. that, since the matter had gone off without a loss, the danger might have been entirely avoidable.
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At the beginning of the Turki Alalshikh era in boxing, there was a suggestion that Riyadh could become a new capital fight.
But ongoing questions over reckless event-planning in Las Vegas suggest there’s never anything to worry about.