Canelo Alvarez return fight delayed again, moved to Oct. 31

Canelo Alvarez’s return to the ring has been pushed back.

The former undisputed super middleweight champion has revealed that
his bout against WBC 168-pound titleholder Christian Mbilli has
been rescheduled for Oct. 31. The championship clash was originally
slated for Sept. 12 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, before being postponed
earlier this month.

Canelo Alvarez postpones Christian Mbilli bout after family
issue delays training camp

According to Alvarez, family matters prevented him from beginning
preparations for the bout, prompting the postponement.

“Some problems in my family came up,” Alvarez told Ariel Helwani.
“I wasn’t ready to go into training camp because I needed to deal
with that first.”

The fight will remain in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and is expected to
air on DAZN via pay-per-view and the platform’s Ultimate tier.
Alvarez (63-3-2, 39 KOs) hasn’t competed since suffering a
unanimous decision loss to Terence Crawford in September 2025, a
defeat that cost him the undisputed super middleweight
championship.

Crawford later retired, elevating Mbilli (29-0-1, 24 KOs) from
interim champion to full WBC titleholder. While Alvarez-Mbilli has
been moved to Halloween night, Sept. 12 will still feature a
marquee boxing event, as Ryan Garcia is scheduled to face Conor
Benn in a welterweight title bout under the Zuffa Boxing
banner.

Canelo reveals why the Christian Mbilli
fight has been delayed until October 31:

„There were some problems in my family that I needed to take care
of, but everything is good now.

I’m always very disciplined and very organized with my training
camps, and I wasn’t ready to be in… pic.twitter.com/zpWlsUo7Rr

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani)
July 22, 2026