Canelo after 13 months out: 'It feels like 10 years without fighting'
Saúl 'Canelo' Álvarez says in Riyadh that the long break did his body good. He has learned from the Crawford defeat – and took a lot from Usyk's team.
Archive image · Photo: Presidencia de la República Mexicana / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 (cropped and resized)
"I feel great. I can't wait to step in the ring," Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez told Reuters after arriving in Riyadh. The 36-year-old has not fought since losing to Terence Crawford in September 2025. "I think my body needed that kind of rest, and now I feel like it has been 10 years without fighting," he said.
Álvarez acknowledged to Reuters that he was not in the right frame of mind against Crawford. "Little mistakes are the difference between winning and losing … I know what I did in the last fight." Having a world title on the line against Christian Mbilli on Saturday gives the fight extra significance for him, he said.
The former two-time undisputed super middleweight champion prepared with his team led by trainer Eddy Reynoso in Oleksandr Usyk's camp in Spain. "We learned from the best and Team Usyk helped me a lot," Álvarez said. "We're going to show that on Saturday."