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