Before Canelo: Espinoza defends WBO belt – Munguía's WBA status still unclear
Alongside Canelo vs Mbilli, two more world title fights are scheduled in Riyadh on Saturday. Rafael Espinoza's is settled; Jaime Munguía vs Nikita Zon still lacks public WBA approval.
Archive image · Photo: International Boxing Entertainment / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
Rafael Espinoza (28-0, 24 KOs) defends his WBO featherweight title in Riyadh on Saturday against Ricardo Blandón (21-6, 14 KOs). Blandón, ranked 15th by the WBO, stepped in at short notice for Lorenzo Parra, according to The Ring, and is a heavy underdog. Espinoza said of the change: "In boxing, things like this happen."
Jaime Munguía meets unbeaten Nikita Zon in the co-main event. DAZN lists the bout as a defence of Munguía's WBA super middleweight title. On October 9, however, the WBA said it had not approved the fight and named Bektemir Melikuziev as its official contender. According to Boxing News 24 there has been no public ruling from the organisation since – neither an approval nor a stripping.
A third title fight is off: the IBF bout between Lindolfo Delgado and Arthur Biyarslanov has been cancelled. According to DAZN, the main card starts at 1pm ET (17:00 GMT) on Saturday, with Canelo vs Mbilli expected at around 4:30pm ET (20:30 GMT).