- Canelo Alvarez defends his WBC super middleweight title against Christian Mbilli in Riyadh on October 31
- As of late September the promised VADA testing programme had not begun, and promoter Sela had not yet paid or formally engaged VADA for the fight
- Canelo's adviser Richard Schaefer says the fighter is ready to test and has submitted his whereabouts forms
A Month Out And No Testing
Right then. Canelo Alvarez is due to defend his WBC super middleweight title against Christian Mbilli in Riyadh on October 31, and with roughly a month to go the voluntary VADA testing programme everyone was promised has not started. Promoter Sela has not yet paid VADA or formally engaged them for the fight. That is not a technicality. VADA testing works because it starts early and it is random, and every week that passes with nothing in place is a week of protection gone.
Richard Schaefer, Canelo's adviser, says his man is ready to be tested and has already submitted his whereabouts forms. Fine. I take that at face value. But a fighter being willing is only half of it, the other half is someone actually paying for and running the programme, and that is the bit that has not happened.
Why Canelo Carries The Extra Scrutiny
Let's not beat around the bush. Canelo tested positive for clenbuterol in 2018 and blamed contaminated meat, and since then he has publicly committed to VADA testing to keep that chapter closed. So when the programme is delayed on a fight this close, it hands his critics an easy line that he did not need to give them. It also does Mbilli no favours. The Canadian is a genuinely dangerous puncher, and if he gets to a world-title fight of this size he deserves a clean, properly policed one.
Whose Job Is This?
This one sits with the promoter and the venue, not the fighters. If Riyadh wants to be taken seriously as a home for the biggest fights in the sport, funding an independent testing programme on time is the least you would expect. It is a small cost next to an event of this size.
The Verdict
My prediction: the testing gets sorted, probably in a hurry, and the fight goes ahead on October 31 with a shortened window that is better than nothing but worse than it should be. On the night, I fancy Canelo to use the experience gap over a heavy-handed Mbilli. But the story until then is simple. Get the testing started, do it properly, and stop giving the sceptics a free shot. If you know boxing, you know that is easily fixed.