Christian Mbilli vs Canelo fight preview

Christian Mbilli vs Canelo FRIGHT NIGHT

21 years after his professional debut, Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez (63-3-2) returns to the ring this weekend for his 69th fight after a thirteen-month absence to challenge unbeaten champion Christian M’billi (29-0-1) for the WBC super-middleweight title, live on DAZN PPV.

Despite ongoing conflict in the Middle East that has hit Riyadh in recent weeks, organisers have surprisingly pressed ahead with the fight, despite the cancellation of other major events in the region.

Canelo has not fought since suffering his third career defeat to Terence Crawford last September, in a bout that saw the Omaha fighter step up two weight divisions to dethrone the undisputed champion in Las Vegas.

Now 36, and with so many miles on the clock, questions are circling as to how many chapters remain in his remarkable career.

The Mexican superstar has only been beaten by Floyd Mayweather, Dmitry Bivol and, latterly, Crawford.

Those three have a combined record of 117-1 and, to this point, have amassed 37 world titles between them. There is no disgrace in losing to any of them, but Canelo can justify the first two of those defeats a lot easier than the Crawford setback last time out.

Mayweather, who retired with a perfect 50-0 record, was a master at selecting his opponents at the right time. He plucked a raw Canelo, who was only 23 but had gained a reputation as a star of the future, and subjected him to a boxing masterclass back in 2013 as he improved to 45-0.

After that humbling came the peak of what is sure to be a Hall of Fame career: fifteen wins and a draw as Canelo established himself as one of the greatest Mexican fighters of all time.

From 2014 until the end of 2021, titles from light-middleweight to light-heavyweight came his way, with excellent wins over fighters such as Gennady Golovkin, Miguel Cotto and Sergey Kovalev, as well as en route to undisputed status at super-middleweight, the British pair of Callum Smith and Billy Joe Saunders.

Canelo established himself as the leading fighter in the sport and reigned as its pound-for-pound king, until he faced off with Bivol in May 2022.

The scorecards all had it 115-113 to the Russian, but it was a dominant display from the man who would go on in later years to become an undisputed champion himself at light-heavyweight.

With the bout being at 175lbs, a weight that Canelo had only briefly flirted with and sensibly hasn’t ventured up to since, pushing himself too far in the quest for further greatness can be offered as an easy explanation.

However, following that defeat to Bivol, he has not appeared to be the same fighter.

Unsurprisingly, a return to his old stomping ground of super-middleweight was immediate.

After beating an aged version of his great rival Golovkin in a somewhat flat conclusion to their epic trilogy, Canelo’s performances haven’t set the pulses racing, but there was still enough left to become undisputed champion once again.

En route, he recorded victories over a series of overmatched opponents — John Ryder, Jermell Charlo, Jaime Munguia, Edgar Berlanga and William Scull — to capture the four recognised world title belts.

All five went the distance, but all offered very little threat, and the sense was that if they had fought the pre-Bivol version of Canelo, they may all have struggled to make the final bell.

The Guadalajara-born fighter, who won his first world title at light-middleweight by defeating Matthew Hatton way back in 2011, bit off more than he could chew against Crawford last September.

‘Bud’ was one step ahead of Canelo all night, proving too quick and sharp and, remarkably, never seeming in any real jeopardy as the Mexican desperately tried to turn the contest in his favour, to no avail, with all three judges awarding the American a seismic victory.

On Saturday night, M’billi will have the height and weight advantage as he looks to secure a career-best win. At 31, and with just 30 fights to his name, he will no doubt be the fresher man in the Riyadh ring and he is very much a live dog in this fight, but that perhaps says more about where the challenger finds himself at present.

With 24 stoppages from his 29 wins, those natural advantages and the newfound confidence that being champion will no doubt bring him, Frenchmen M’billi will fancy his chances of inflicting a damaging second consecutive defeat on Canelo.

Were Canelo to suffer a fourth defeat as a professional, there would be serious question marks over his future.

It has been an extraordinary career that began when he was just 15 but post-Bivol, he fights at a slower pace, looks to take breathers within rounds and seems incapable of going through the gears to force stoppage wins.

With his place in boxing history long since established and a fortune estimated to stand at around $350m, only Canelo knows what motivates him to keep fighting.

Whatever that motivation is, a defeat to a fighter such as M’billi, who is not in the same elite bracket that Mayweather, Bivol and Crawford were when they bettered him, will severely test the desire to return for a 70th fight in 2027.

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