Christian Mbilli has revealed the extent to which a month-and-a-half delay has affected his preparation for Canelo Alvarez.
The pair were originally scheduled to square off on September 12, only for Canelo to cite family problems as the reason for postponing their showdown to October 31.
As a result, both combatants will have incurred over a year of inactivity by the time they collide for Mbilli’s WBC world super-middleweight title in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The Frenchman was upgraded from ‘interim’ to full champion last December, just a few months after boxing to a 10-round draw against Lester Martinez.
This was because Terence Crawford announced his retirement and vacated all four major 168lb belts that same month, having become a three-division undisputed king.
The American did so by unanimously outpointing and dethroning Canelo, who was handily defeated by ‘Bud’ but arguably produced one of his better performances in recent times.
Clearly feeling as though he has more left to offer, the 36-year-old is now focused on reclaiming one of his old belts against Mbilli.
The defending champion, meanwhile, has told FIGHTMAG during a public workout that, having chased the Mexican for years, he does not believe a month-or-so delay will make any difference to his performance.
“I really wasn’t stressed [about the delay]. I was pretty calm about it.
“We’ve been waiting for this fight for so many years that one month, two months, three months, four months [or] more doesn’t change much.
“We’re going to go and get that victory.”
From a stylistic perspective, Canelo is considered the more skilful fighter while Mbilli could cause the challenger problems with his relentless aggression and punch output.
Opinion in the boxing world is split, with the likes of Shawn Porter and Robert Garcia backing Canelo, but Paulie Malignaggi believing Mbilli’s pressure will be too much for the Mexican.
