Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua are signed, sealed and confirmed for Cardiff on December 11. The fight over who gets to promote them is still being argued, in public, between two men who have spent the past month calling each other’s bluff.
Hearn and White Finally Sit Down
Eddie Hearn confirmed this week that he would meet Zuffa Boxing representatives, Dana White included, while he is in Los Angeles for separate sit-downs with Netflix and Sela. The meeting was arranged at Sela’s request, by Hearn’s own account on The Ariel Helwani Show. White’s immediate response was to deny that any meeting was set, insisting he will personally produce the December 11 broadcast with his own team.
That contradiction is the whole story. Joshua’s contract, according to Hearn, contains language barring TKO, Zuffa Boxing and White from any involvement in the fight. When Netflix and Turki Alalshikh pushed to stage it at Madison Square Garden, Joshua turned down a multi-million-pound offer to let TKO aboard, Hearn said, choosing to keep the fight in Britain instead. Hearn’s position has been consistent: nothing happens without his and Joshua’s consent. His tone, though, has softened. On Tuesday he said that if a deal could be reached that benefits Joshua and Matchroom, White’s side could potentially be involved.
That is a real shift from a promoter who spent weeks describing White’s claims as fiction. Read it the way you would read a chess player offering a trade: Hearn holds the contractual position, White has the Saudi money men in his corner, and both know the build-up is worth more with a truce than a courtroom.
What is actually confirmed about the fight itself: Principality Stadium, December 11, 12 rounds, broadcast globally on Netflix, promoted through a tripartite arrangement between Queensberry, Matchroom and Sela, per the British Boxing Board of Control. There is no rematch clause in the deal, and both Hearn and Fury’s manager Spencer Brown have spoken as though there will be no second act. BBC Sport understands the WBA Super heavyweight title is expected to be on the line, though the governing body has not confirmed it.
Canelo’s Riyadh Date Is Suddenly Shaky
The bigger immediate problem sits on October 31. A security alert issued by the U.S. Mission in Saudi Arabia on October 5, warning of potential drone or missile attacks, has thrown Canelo Alvarez’s WBC super middleweight challenge against Christian Mbilli into genuine doubt. The WBC’s own viewing information still lists Riyadh for Halloween night, and no relocation has been announced. But a fight date cannot argue with a travel advisory, and fans booking flights can.
One commentator floated November 21 in Las Vegas. That is speculation, not a plan, and it ignores the fact that Canelo has not fought since losing his super middleweight crown to Terence Crawford in September 2025. A second postponement, after this bout was pushed off its original September 12 date, would be brutal for a champion in Mbilli who has waited his turn and a former face of boxing trying to prove he still has one.
WBA Mandatory Season: Two Champions, Two Deadlines
Meanwhile the WBA is doing the thing it occasionally does, which is enforce its own rules.
Jaime Munguia, who won the super middleweight title from Jose Armando Resendiz in May, was ordered to face No. 1 contender Bektemir Melikuziev with a negotiation window running to October 21. Munguia’s team, per ESPN’s Salvador Rodriguez, is instead negotiating step-aside money so the champion can squeeze in a voluntary defense against Keiber Gonzalez first, an unranked Venezuelan who is nowhere near the WBA’s top fifteen at 168 pounds. Melikuziev’s response was blunt: the purse does not matter, he said, he is ready to fight for free, but the sport should stop disrespecting him and the rules of the game.
Melikuziev says he was the mandatory before Munguia even fought for the belt. Paying him to wait so the champion can pad a record is exactly the kind of business that makes fans stop trusting rankings.
A day later, the WBA’s other deadline lands on Teofimo Lopez, ordered to defend against Jack Catterall by October 22. Lopez wants Ryan Garcia in a unification instead. He can take the Catterall fight, vacate, or let it go to purse bid, and given how aggressively he has chased big names since beating Rolando Romero in August, the smart money says he finds a way around it.
The Weekend: Iglesias, Then Chicago
Thursday, October 8: Osleys Iglesias defends the IBF and IBO super middleweight titles against Denmark’s Oliver Zaren in Quebec City on DAZN. Iglesias might have the best eye test in the division, and Zaren, the IBF’s No. 5, is undefeated with a technical draw from a fight stopped by a thunderstorm. Tune in early, too: Wilkens Mathieu against Vladimir Shishkin on the undercard is a genuine test for a 21-year-old prospect.
Saturday, October 10: Floyd Schofield (19-0, 13 KOs) and Lucas Bahdi (20-0, 15 KOs) fight for the vacant WBA lightweight title at Chicago’s Wintrust Arena, live on DAZN. Gervonta Davis was stripped of that belt, and Schofield has spent barely 78 seconds in the ring over almost two years. His 78 pro rounds are fewer than Bahdi’s 92, and Bahdi’s 75 percent knockout rate is the higher of the two. In the co-feature, Ricardo Sandoval defends the WBA and WBC flyweight titles against Sergio Mendoza, who stepped in after Oscar Collazo withdrew with a rib injury.
October 17: Daniel Dubois defends the WBO heavyweight title against Fabio Wardley at the O2, five months after stopping him in the 11th round in Manchester. Bakhodir Jalolov against Solomon Dacres is the chief support.
The Filipino Corner
Back home, the action lands on October 11 in Paranaque. UKC Pro Boxing Series XXXV, billed as October Fist, brings 16 bouts to the Elorde Sports Center in Sucat, headlined by two unbeaten flyweights: Mac Morris Thunder Abila (6-0, 5 KOs) of Albay against Angelus Pitbull Pilapil (7-0, 3 KOs) of Cebu City, the reigning WBO Oriental Youth champion. Abila, 23, is training under Coach Jetro Pabustan and knows this is the hardest night of his career so far. Pilapil won that Oriental Youth belt by unanimous decision over South Korea’s Dae San Yoon in February.
The co-feature is an international one: Adam Farhan Nazrine against Sitthidet Banti over ten rounds for the vacant WBA Asia South super middleweight title. The card is promoted by Cucuy Elorde, a surname that carries its own weight in Philippine boxing.
It has been a busy autumn for Pinoy fighters, from Suganob’s revenge over Nontshinga in Bohol to Eumir Marcial staying unbeaten in San Diego. If you are Filipino like me, a 16-bout card at the Elorde on a Sunday morning is the sport at its most honest: small purses, full gyms, and fighters nobody outside the islands has ranked yet.
The Bottom Line
The heavyweight superfight is real, its promotion is not settled, and the man holding the contract has the better position for now. Canelo’s date is the one to watch this week, because if Riyadh wobbles again, the whole autumn calendar shifts with it. In between, there is a vacant lightweight title in Chicago and a Filipino flyweight war in Paranaque. Not a bad Wednesday.