Canelo lands in Riyadh – with heavyweight champion Usyk at his side
Six days before his WBC title fight with Christian Mbilli, Saúl 'Canelo' Álvarez has landed in Riyadh. Oleksandr Usyk, who visited his camp in Spain, travelled with him.
Archive image · Photo: Gabriel Hutchinson / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez arrived in Riyadh overnight into Monday. Turki Alalshikh posted on X: "Mexican champion Canelo Alvarez has arrived in Riyadh alongside world champion Oleksandr Usyk." A video showed Álvarez walking into his hotel past dancers in traditional Mexican dress. According to Boxing Insider, Usyk had joined Álvarez's camp in Spain for several days; "I enjoyed it a lot," the Mexican said.
On Saturday, October 31, Álvarez challenges Christian Mbilli for the WBC super middleweight title. Before that, according to Boxing Insider, come the grand arrivals, open workouts, a midweek press conference and Friday's weigh-in. Reuters reported that other sporting events in Saudi Arabia have been cancelled or postponed over security concerns, with the Houthis repeatedly attacking airports, including Riyadh's.
Not everyone is on the way yet: Robert Garcia, trainer of Lindolfo Delgado, who meets Arthur Biyarslanov for the vacant IBF super lightweight title on the same card, said according to Boxing Insider: "We don't have no flights. We don't have no information."