Canelo Alvarez of Mexico returned to the ring on Saturday in the main event of a Ring Magazine show in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and won a unanimous decision over Cameroon native Christian Mbilli.
The judges’ scorecards were read after 12 rounds for the WBC super middleweight championship, with Alvarez victorious 115-112, 116-111, 117-110.
Following the fight, Alvarez said he felt comfortable returning to the ring after a 13-month absence due to left elbow surgery following his loss last September to Terence Crawford in Las Vegas.
“It’s so difficult to explain,” Alvarez said. “It’s something unbelievable. “This feels like my first title. After 21 years as a professional, 16 years ago, I won my first title. Now I won the title again. I’m so proud, so proud of my team.”
For now, Alvarez (64-3-2) declined to call the shots for his next fight and wants to take time off to spend with his family.
After a slow opening round in which only 17 punches landed, Mbilli (29-1-1) started to find his combinations in Round 2 before Alvarez landed a hard counter to the body.
In Round 3, a confident Mbilli continued to find his flow and frustrate Alvarez against the ropes, but a defining knockout blow never came. Alvarez remained tentative and conservative, which agitated his coaches as they advised him to mix up his combinations as the fight progressed.
The fourth round saw much of the same as the third, but Mbilli failed to increase his aggression and keep Alvarez off balance. By Round 5, Alvarez led 84-81 in power punches. In the closing minute of the fifth, both men showed signs of fatigue, despite Mbilli trading in the pocket as the round concluded.
In Round 6, Mbilli and Alvarez remained against the ropes for much of the frame. Mbilli’s overhand right wasn’t enough to knock out Alvarez, as Mexico’s boxing icon stayed at distance, landing body shots off his back foot.
Round 7 returned to a slower pace, as Alvarez’s volume increased while Mbilli became a moving target. Alvarez’s uppercut stunned Mbilli as the round ended, but Mbilli was saved by the bell.
Round 8 was another display of Alvarez making Mbilli guess until under a minute left, when Alvarez earned a brief breather after Mbilli threw illegal rabbit punches to the back of Alvarez’s head, drawing a point deduction.
Round 9 saw Mbilli begin to fade, as Alvarez landed smarter shots while keeping Mbilli off-balance with jabs, right hands and allowing Mbilli to fight at an unorthodox stance with a controlled pace. Alvarez needed little support from the ropes or the officiating, as Mbilli had little answers for what Alvarez threw at him.
With three potential championship rounds left, Mbilli had little urgency to finish Alvarez. This led Alvarez to continue to time his shots with effortless precision in Round 10. In the 11th, Mbilli did the same, while Alvarez stayed relaxed, with no sign of a momentum-changing shot to turn the fight in Mbilli’s favor. Mbilli finally let his hands go, landing a right hand in the closing seconds.
The 12th and final round was another example of Alvarez on cruise control. One Mbilli combination, then a freeze, dictated the entire fight: one step forward, three steps back. Mbilli’s late surge wasn’t enough, as Alvarez closed out the bout.
-Field Level Media
