Canelo vs. Mbilli winners and losers: Canelo Alvarez, Jaime Munguia salvage an occasion that had a lot of points

The eyes of the boxing world were on Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Saturday evening, as The Ring and Riyadh Season put on a boxing showcase titled: “Mexico vs. the World.”

On a evening when Saul “Canelo” Alvarez grew to become a three-time tremendous middleweight champion, who were the general winners and losers of the occasion?

Advertisement

Let’s take a deep dive into the motion.

WINNERS

Canelo Alvarez

Alvarez is a world champion again, regaining the WBC 168-pound title 13 months after dropping it to Terence Crawford. 

It was Christian Mbilli whom the Mexican great defeated Saturday evening, profitable via unanimous resolution and giving us a glimpse into what Alvarez has left in the tank.

The reply? More than enough.

Was it classic Alvarez? No. But after a gradual begin in which he appeared content material sitting on the ropes, taking part in possum and tucking up to Mbilli’s attacks, Alvarez started shifting his toes, catching and countering, and punishing the Frenchman’s advances with sharp riposte and some clubbing, signature left hooks.

Advertisement

The control came in the second half of the combat. Alvarez — like he has completed to a litany of fighters — determined Mbilli could not damage him and, importantly, could not beat him to the punch in the important exchanges. In the championship rounds, Alvarez was even in a position to flip the tables and become the front-foot fighter.

Is Mbilli a bona fide world class tremendous middleweight? Probably not, but Alvarez can only beat what is put in entrance of him. And trying at the present crop of tremendous middleweight contenders, there are a lot more names — and paychecks — for the Mexican to work through on what could flip into a pre-retirement tour.

What’s next for Alvarez? Well you’ll have to ask Turki Alalshikh. He’s still got a combat left on his contract with Saudi Arabia, so you’d think about boxing’s most influential matchmaker will need something important and head-turning for his prized asset.

Will he discover that scanning down the checklist of present tremendous middleweight contenders? The WBC’s interim champion is Lester Martinez. The other champions are Osleys Iglesias and Jaime Munguia, whom Alvarez already defeated. So perhaps not. 

Advertisement

Knowing some of the curveballs that Alalshikh has thrown our approach over the last couple of years, it would be a shock if he wasn’t eyeing up an all-Mexican affair between Alvarez and David Benavidez — a combat that has been on a long-running collision course, made more durable in latest years by Benavidez’s latest jumps in weight.

But if Alvarez can’t get the dance companions, expect him to begin concentrating on some of the arenas left on his boxing bucket checklist, particularly, Mexico City’s historic Estadio Azteca. 

Jaime Munguia

Munguia is enjoyable, is not he? They say that expertise pay the payments, but leisure sells tickets. 

Advertisement

Munguia clung to this WBA tremendous middleweight title, surviving scare after scare against the unheralded Nikita Zon, narrowly avoiding a big upset after repeatedly getting damage.

And did we witness a 2026 Round of the Year contender in Round 6 as both males traded close to fight-ending blows after their own barrages of sustained attacks?

It’s perhaps a damning indictment of the 168-pound panorama that Munguia finds himself sitting close to the prime of it. There are evident holes in his recreation, but few can query his willingness to have a go. He is as recreation as they come and, with the title still draped over his shoulder, should make for some fascinating defenses.

Bektemir Melikuziev is probably next in line. But after Saturday evening, Munguia hardly appears to be like like an immovable impediment. There will be a lot of contenders watching the tape and fancying their possibilities.

Advertisement

But a win is a win, and Munguia wakes up on Sunday morning with a sore head as a world champion — and with a queue forming at his door.

Rafael Espinoza

It’s kind of an unwritten rule in boxing: When you’re handed a late-replacement opponent, you’ve got to get the fighter out of there.

And that’s precisely what the Mexican did to Carlos Blandon in the fifth protection of his WBO featherweight crown, stopping the challenger in three rounds after the ringside physician suggested the referee to stop the combat following a cut to Blandon’s left eye. 

It was a sharp, well-timed proper hand that did the injury to the scarred eye socket of Blandon, giving Espinoza his twenty ninth profession win alongside his twenty fourth stoppage to keep unbeaten.

Advertisement

In fact, it won’t be a combat that will stay long in the reminiscence. Espinoza will have been a featherweight world champion for three years once we hit December and greater fights and more durable exams are now properly overdue. 

The all-singing, all-dancing Espinoza said post-fight that he needs unification fights at 126 kilos, and he also needs to combat Naoya Inoue in Japan — but he did not precisely shout it to the hilltops. 

He spent more time signing to the crowd than he did giving any further particulars of how his 2027 might play out. And who could blame him when you’ve got a voice like that?

Carl Jammes Martin

Team Mexico got off to a fairly gradual begin on the evening, rubber-stamped by the large upset of the night as David Picasso lost via cut up resolution to Filipino.

Advertisement

And you’d have to have a coronary heart of stone to deny the dancing of “Wonder Boy” as he grabbed the WBC silver featherweight title from Picasso despite struggling a knockdown in Round 7.

It was a nip-and-tuck affair across a very aggressive 10 rounds. It could have gone either approach on the scorecards, but Martin got the nod and prolonged his unbeaten skilled report to 29-0 (21 KOs).

Martin has spent a majority of his profession combating in his native Philippines, but now with a acknowledged title on his report, he will appeal to a lot more consideration in the 126-pound division.

LOSERS

Christian Mbilli

I’m reluctant to lay into Mbilli too much.

Advertisement

DAZN’s commentary crew was very essential of the Frenchman’s unwillingness to interact with Alvarez down the stretch, giftwrapping his WBC world title to the man that has owned it twice before.

But it’s a story as previous as time. It’s simple to sit there and inform a fighter to just go for broke — but if you can’t discover the openings to land these bombs, then you’re going to get discovered out with counters shortly.

“He didn’t throw a lot of punches, because it’s hard to throw punches with me,” Alvarez said post-fight in the ring, stressing that level.

Fellow tremendous middleweight Gabriel Rosado posted on X: “You can obviously see there’s a tear on Mbilli [sic] left bicep,” and perhaps some excuses will come out in the days that comply with, but when Alvarez is on, you’ve got to be fairly close to excellent to beat him.

Advertisement

Mbilli is only 31 and will come again. It’s the first loss in his profession and he had enough moments in this combat to bolster his career-highlights package deal. 

Boxing followers

It’s Riyadh Season, child, and for boxing it’s a case of everybody performing like nothing is taking place and nothing is mistaken. It’s that meme of the canine sitting having a cup of espresso while his home burns in the background. 

That should not be a shock. Boxing is, after all, the black sheep of sport and typically finds itself veering into its own lane, unbothered by the pile-up it leaves behind.

We knew the story heading into this weekend’s card: The Iran-backed Houthi rebels of Yemen are at battle with a Saudi-led coalition, and Riyadh — more particularly King Khalid International Airport — was turned into a battle-ground across October. 

Advertisement

But despite the cancellation or postponement of other sporting occasions due to take place in Riyadh, “Mexico vs. the World” went forward.

Alalshikh, the head honcho of Riyadh Season, was disturbingly silent. 

That silence is the most telling half of all. There was very little in the approach of public reassurance and little clarification of why this specific occasion is continuing while others have been pulled from the calendar. Instead, the boxing machine saved rolling, seemingly decided to punch through the noise outside the ring. 

And that is where the sport’s peculiar relationship with Saudi Arabia becomes tough to ignore. Boxing has spent the previous few years following the money to Riyadh, fortunately accepting the monumental purses, grandiose manufacturing and promise of fights that once appeared not possible to make. 

Advertisement

But when the dialog shifts from spectacle to security, the solutions become more durable to discover. 

The viewers appeared patchy and uninterested in Riyadh. This occasion alienated hundreds of followers that could and should have witnessed an Alvarez combat stay — that’s if sense prevailed and it was relocated west to the United States or perhaps Mexico.

Bektemir ‘Bek the Bully’ Melikuziev

Let’s get it straight: “Bek the Bully” got screwed in October.

The harmful Uzbek, now 30, should have been combating Jaime Munguia on this card for the Munguia’s WBA crown at 168 kilos, but instead Melikuziev got ignored by the champion and the sanctioning physique.

Advertisement

Munguia was ordered to face No. 1 contender Melikuziev next, with the WBA giving both camps until Oct. 21 to attain an settlement — but the champion and his crew refused, opting to invite Zon to Riyadh instead to problem for the title.

The WBA claimed to have not authorized the combat and promised to “review the situation,” but in typical sanctioning physique fashion, it stayed quiet afterward leaving it until combat week for the chips to fall.

According to Mike Coppinger on the DAZN broadcast, Melikuziev’s crew accepted a step-aside deal late this week, on the situation that Melikuziev faces Munguia within the next 90 days. The settlement also contains a 60-40 purse cut up in favor of the champion. 

After weeks of administrative limbo, it seems we’ve discovered a decision. But would anyone actually be stunned if this combat fell through again? 

Advertisement

And contemplating Munguia’s shortcomings against Zon on the evening, Melikuziev will be going to mattress tonight satisfied he would have completed the job that the Russian was in a position to begin.

Stay tuned to this saga.

Chris Mannix

After Espinoza stopped Blandon, we headed back into the DAZN studios to discover Chris Mannix describing the stoppage as “extremely premature”.

Now, I am no physician. And I’m fairly sure Chris Mannix is not a physician, either. 

But I do know who is a physician. And that’s Neil Scott, the chief medical officer of the British Boxing Board of Control from 2017 up until June of this 12 months. Scott is still on the British Boxing Board of Control medical panel and independently contracted by the sport’s main promoters.

Advertisement

“I wonder what the doctor was looking at,” Mannix continued. “How much experience does that doctor have in professional boxing? Because that is not the kind of cut that is deep enough to stop any fight, let alone a championship fight.”

Scott’s judgment should be trusted by fighters who put their lives on the line.

I get it: Mannix is paid to give his opinion. But Scott is paid to look after the health and security of boxers — and I know which I deem more important. 

Show pacing

Say what you need about Zuffa Boxing and Dana White — and believe me, I have — but there were moments Saturday when you could not help wishing their manufacturing crew had been handed the keys.

Advertisement

White has made no secret of his need to deliver some UFC-style urgency to boxing broadcasts. That means cutting out the seemingly infinite gaps between fights, ditching the pointless filler and, above all, maintaining the motion shifting.

After watching fewer than 5 rounds of boxing across two-and-a-half hours of the broadcast before Munguia vs. Zon, you can perceive the appeal.

To be truthful, Kate Scott, Malik Scott and Mannix deserve some credit for maintaining the dialog ticking over during the prolonged wait. They had an enviornment full of tremendous middleweights to call upon for interviews, at least, as everyone patiently waited for — and I quote — “Turki Alalshikh to take his seat.”

A novel motive to keep a boxing viewers ready, if nothing else.