Alvarez announced during “The Ariel Helwani Show” on Wednesday that he’ll challenge Mbilli for the WBC super middleweight title on October 31. The fight's location remains in flux due to the war between the United States and Iran, which has attacked Saudi Arabia.

Their 12-round fight was originally scheduled for September 12 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, before it was pushed back to late October. Alvarez (63-3-2, 39 KOs), The Ring’s No. 1-ranked super middleweight, said the date changed due to a family matter that affected the timing of his training camp.

Mexico’s Alvarez last fought September 13, when Terence Crawford beat him by unanimous decision for The Ring, IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO super middleweight titles at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

The last time Alvarez, 36, had over a year-long layoff was between his 11th-round stoppage of then-WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev in November 2019 and his unanimous decision win over Callum Smith for The Ring, WBA and WBC super middleweight titles in December 2020.

Mbilli (29-0-1, 24 KOs), The Ring’s No. 3-ranked super middleweight, held the interim WBC title and was elevated to full champion after Crawford (42-0, 31 KOs) retired in December.

The 31-year-old champ from Yaounde, Cameroon, who is now based out of Montreal, last fought to a split draw in a 10-round fight against Lester Martinez on the Alvarez-Crawford undercard.