Canelo embraces road trip to Saudi Arabia to fight William Scull
Unification bout will be his first outside North America in attempt to become a two-time undisputed super middleweight champion
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Unified super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez, boxing’s biggest star, has fought all 66 of his professional bouts either in his native Mexico or in the United States, where he has regularly packed arenas in Las Vegas and generated big-time pay-per-view numbers.
But for his next fight, the first of a four-fight agreement with Turki Alalshikh, the head of Riyadh Season and chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, Alvarez is headed to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for his first fight outside of North America and he said he is looking forward to the experience.
“I am very excited to fight outside my country of Mexico and America,” Alvarez said on Thursday at New York’s famed Radio City Music Hall during the kickoff news conference to promote his upcoming fight against IBF titleholder William Scull. “I always wanted to fight in other places and this is the moment and I feel very excited. It’s motivating to myself to be fighting in another country. I feel great about it; motivated. This fight is very important to me.
“Fighting in Saudi Arabia is something new for me, but I’m ready to fight anywhere because Canelo’s territory is everywhere worldwide.”
The undisputed 168-pound championship fight against Scull will take place on May 3 (DAZN PPV) at Anb Arena, where it will be early morning May 4 in Riyadh to accommodate a Saturday night broadcast on Cinco de Mayo weekend in the U.S. and Mexico.