Robert Garcia on Lindolfo Delgado's Saturday title shot: 'Fight's off'

Describing a harrowing environment in which missiles and enemy drone attacks are active and threatening, back-to-back Trainer of the Year winner Robert Garcia on Monday elaborated about the decision to pull his 140lbs IBF title contender Lindolfo Delgado from Saturday’s Canelo Alvarez-headlined card in Saudi Arabia.

“U.S. citizens are being advised to leave,” Garcia said of the threat posed by Iran-backed Houthi rebels from Yemen, who killed 13 earlier this month at the King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the same city where Alvarez will attempt to regain his WBC super middleweight belt from new titleholder Christian Mbilli of Canada.

“I got a call from an attorney and he said, ‘We get at least two warnings on our phone every day – alerts about missiles.’”

For now, the card – minus Delgado – appears to be on as planned. But new attacks on the airport Monday, claimed by the Houthis, followed the recent re-opening of the airport.

“It’s already happening,” Garcia said on Monday’s episode of ProBoxTV’s “BoxingScene Today.” “Why would we risk ourselves going over there without being safe? Flying to a different country [Bahrain] and driving 5-6 hours to get to a different location? It’s looking for trouble.”

Beyond the wartime activities tied to the U.S.-Iran conflict, Garcia said the Saudis failed to distribute Delgado’s travel materials over the weekend, meaning the earliest they could have arrived across multiple time zones in Saudi Arabia was Monday night.

“To get [accustomed to the travel] and cut weight for a world title fight, it’s unbelievable, impossible, ridiculous,” Garcia said.

While the Saudis and their boxing point man Turki Alalshikh have seen the cancellation or postponement of tennis, wrestling and other events during this Riyadh Season tourist period on the calendar, Alvarez has steadfastly refused to withdraw, causing what some observers have cast as a high-stakes game of chicken to ensure he is paid his eight-figure purse for the fight topping the “Mexico Versus the Rest of the World” card.

Delgado, 24-0 (16 KOs), was to fight Arthur Biyarslanov, who arrived last week in Saudi Arabia along with promotional banner mate Mbilli.

Also tugging at Delgado was the fact he recently became the father of a newborn. The difficulties of fight-week logistics in Riyadh under the circumstances were only the tip of the iceberg for Garcia.

“And to risk our fighter on top of that, no way,” Garcia said. “Fight’s off.”

The unprecedented effort to stage a global boxing event in a war zone has alarmed many as Monday’s ballistic missiles neared.

“The money’s cool,” said “BoxingScene Today” host Chris Algieri. “I’d like to live to spend it.”