Tony Bellew has been looking ahead to Canelo’ Alvarez’s ring return against Christian Mbilli this weekend.

Multi-weight champion Canelo has taken more than a year out of the sport following his loss to Terence Crawford last September, when he had the undisputed super middleweight titles ripped away from him.

That was only the third loss of his great career following defeats to Floyd Mayweather and Dmitry Bivol, but he now has considerable miles on the clock as a veteran of 68 fights who turned professional when he was just 15 years old.

Speaking to Fight Your Corner, Bellew made his prediction for the fight with Mbilli in Saudi Arabia and sided with the multi-weight champion, but with something of a caveat.

“‘Canelo on points. Hard fight though. Mbilli’s active, he’s active, he’s busy, he throws a lot of punches, Mbilli. And if you want to be brutally honest, let’s say he does outwork ‘Canelo’, he’s not getting a decision.”

Canelo’s last knockout victory came back in 2021 when he stopped Caleb Plant after 11 rounds. Of all of his 63 wins, only 39 have come by stoppage, which is likely a symptom of him moving up through the weights to be in classes way above where his natural size would dictate.

Mbilli has stopped 24 of the 29 men he has beaten, though he has not operated at the same level as Canelo, so will need to put on a career-best performance this weekend and hope that the now 36-year-old Mexican is on the slide if he has any hopes of victory.