Robert Garcia on Pulling Delgado From Riyadh: Missile Alerts, Two Days to Cut Weight, 'Fight's Off'

Update (Oct. 30): No replacement was found for Delgado, and the vacant IBF title fight is off the card. Biyarslanov has left Riyadh for home. Read the latest.

Lindolfo Delgado's trainer, Robert Garcia, is explaining why his team pulled out of Saturday's vacant IBF junior welterweight title fight against Arthur Biyarslanov in Riyadh: missile alerts and a travel plan he called impossible.

Garcia laid it out Monday on ProBoxTV's "BoxingScene Today." He said an attorney already in Riyadh told him, "We get at least two warnings on our phone every day – alerts about missiles."

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"Why would we risk ourselves going over there without being safe?" Garcia said. "Flying to a different country [Bahrain] and driving 5-6 hours to get to a different location? It's looking for trouble."

Two days to cut weight

Garcia also said the organizers never sent the team its travel details over the weekend, so Delgado would have reached Saudi Arabia on Tuesday at the earliest. Boxing 24/7 and Infobae carried the same account.

"That means we have Wednesday and Thursday to get used to the time change and cut weight — Who does that in a world title fight?" Garcia said, in comments reported by Boxing 24/7.

"To get [accustomed to the travel] and cut weight for a world title fight, it's unbelievable, impossible, ridiculous," he told BoxingScene. "And to risk our fighter on top of that, no way. Fight's off."

Biyarslanov arrived in Saudi Arabia last week with his promotional stablemate Christian Mbilli, who defends the WBC super middleweight title against Canelo Álvarez in the main event. Delgado (24-0, 16 KOs) and Garcia stayed in the United States.

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No replacement yet

As of Tuesday morning, nobody has been named to face Biyarslanov, and the IBF has not commented, per Bad Left Hook and Boxing News. It's the second title fight on the card to change this week. Lorenzo Parra failed his pre-fight medical, and Ricardo Blandon stepped in to face Rafael Espinoza. The card is still scheduled for Saturday.

Catch up on our original story on Delgado's withdrawal and our Canelo-Mbilli preview. And with Canelo's eight-figure payday a talking point all week, try Guess the Purse on Boxbid.