The message was warm and the tone was unmistakable. Oleksandr Usyk posted on X in the hours after Canelo’s win at Kingdom Arena, telling the Mexican he knew exactly what had gone into it.
“Congratulations on your victory @Canelo! I know how much hard work went into it. May God watch over you, bro.”
Canelo reclaimed the title with a unanimous decision on scorecards of 115-112, 116-111 and 117-110, outboxing a previously undefeated French-Canadian challenger over twelve rounds. The 36-year-old leaned on his right uppercut counter and raised the volume in the second half of the fight, after a 13-month layoff reported by Yahoo Sports.
Training partners, not rivals
The two fighters are friends, not opponents in waiting. In the build-up to the Mbilli fight, Usyk told DAZN he had been training alongside Canelo and drawing inspiration from the Mexican’s approach in camp.
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“He’s an amazing fighter because Canelo Alvarez has discipline,” Usyk said in that interview.
The Ukrainian described their friendship as starting through online contact on Instagram before growing into shared training time, and praised what he called Canelo’s focus on perfecting basic combinations over flashier work.
Canelo pushes again for a Crawford rematch
For Canelo, the Mbilli result was a return to the belt he lost to Terence Crawford in September 2025. In his first post-fight interview he called again for the American to come out of retirement for a second meeting.
“We would honestly love to have that rematch, like I’ve told you,” Canelo told FightHubTV. “If not, we’ll keep moving forward with our career, but hopefully that fight can happen.”
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Crawford walked away from the sport undefeated and has stated more than once that he has no plans to return.
Usyk eyes a cruiserweight farewell
Usyk’s own next step runs in a different direction. His manager Serhii Lapin has told The Ring that the Ukrainian plans to drop back to cruiserweight for his next bout and chase a showdown with David Benavidez, who holds the WBA and WBO cruiserweight titles after moving up and stopping Gilberto Ramirez earlier in 2026.
Usyk vacated his heavyweight belts earlier in 2026 and turns 40 in January. The potential Benavidez fight has been placed in 2027.
Benavidez meets WBC champion Michal Cieslak on 5 December at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona, as the next step in his own three-fight cruiserweight plan.
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