Canelo Alvarez is once again world champion after a unanimous decision win over Christian Mbilli to win the WBC super middleweight title at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. <\/p>\n
Canelo got off to a strong start in the opening round. He didn’t indulge in an all-out fire fight, but he won the technical exchanges in the first. Mbilli also let his hands go and scored on a few punches himself.\u00a0It didn’t take long for Mbilli to settle in, though. He picked up the pace in the second round and showed he might be able to steal some rounds.<\/p>\n
Mbilli did a good job of making the early rounds competitive. Canelo wasn’t able to pull ahead early in the bout, but he appeared to turn the tide as the bout reached the middle rounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Canelo opened up his repertoire in the sixth round with some hard counters to both the body and the head.<\/p>\n
Mbilli’s pace was an issue for much of the night. His best bet was to swarm the challenger, but he allowed Alvarez to set the pace.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some controversy came into play in Round 8. Alvarez was dipping his head, but it was Mbilli who had a point deducted by the referee for punching him behind the head.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was a break that Canelo didn’t really need. As the fight wore on, Alvarez’s experience and technical advantages became clearer. He pulled away on the scorecards and didn’t look back.<\/p>\n
Mbilli turned in a disappointing performance, but it did appear that he might have suffered an arm injury. <\/p>\n
Regardless, Canelo wasn’t truly pushed in the fight and wound up adding another championship performance to his resume.<\/p>\n
Saturday was the first time we had seen Canelo in the ring since his loss to Terence Crawford in September 2025. Crawford took the undisputed titles, but was stripped of one and dropped the rest upon his retirement. <\/p>\n
That opened the door for Alvarez to once again claim a championship that has been familiar to him for much of his career. <\/p>\n
It also begs the question of what’s next for him. He’s 36 years old with 69 professional fights under his belt. Retirement talk is bound to creep in after every fight he has over the next few years. <\/p>\n
To hear him tell it, he’s got a few more big appearances in him, though. He knows there aren’t a ton of years left, but he’s also comfortable with what he’s accomplished in the sport. <\/p>\n
“If it were up to me, it would never be enough. But I think four or five more fights would be enough. I’ve already done everything I needed to do in boxing. I’ve done more than I ever imagined I would,” he told Brett Okamoto<\/a> of ESPN. <\/p>\n