The next one is scheduled for October 31 in Saudi Arabia, as he aims to become a three-time super middleweight champion when he faces the WBC titleholder Mbilli (29-0-1, 24 KOs).

Alvarez (63-3-2, 39 KOs) has been fighting as a professional since the age of 15. The former four-division champion is now 36 and heading into the 69th fight of his 21-year career.

After competing in 532 rounds against the best fighters of his generation, Alvarez admits that the sand in the hourglass of his Hall of Fame-bound career is expiring.

"My body is going to tell me [when to retire]," Alvarez told CBS. "When I'm in the gym, and if I take a lot of punches and my body doesn't respond in the same way, then I know. I'm not going to fight with that kind of training. You can see and feel everything in training camp. You feel how your body responds, or not.

"But there's not much left for me, too. For me, I have other things to accomplish outside of boxing."

Alvarez finds himself in unfamiliar territory for the first time in a long time after losing to Terence Crawford in September.

In November of last year, Alvarez exited The Ring's pound-for-pound list for performance-related issues after more than a decade among the cream of the crop. He's also currently navigating his career without a championship belt. He has held one major title or another since 2011, outside of brief stretches here and there.

With the changing times, Alvarez, who has trained in the high-altitude terrain near Lake Tahoe, California, over the last three years and is coming off elbow surgery, also realizes he needs to make changes to his training as the matchup against Mbilli inches closer.

"I used to be trained in a rustic way. I grew up with that," he said. "Right now, science is different, and I am adapting myself to that. It's smarter. Before, we used to run a lot. And your body gets tired at some point. But right now, I am adjusting myself to the modern day.

"I pretty much accomplished everything. If you look back, every time I fight, I break records, and that's my motivation – legacy. I'm fighting because I love boxing. I'm fighting to represent my country of Mexico."

Manouk Akopyan is The Ring’s lead writer. Follow him on X and Instagram: @ManoukAkopyan.