Sep 17, 2022; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Canelo Alvarez (red trunks) and Gennadiy Golovkin (white trunks) box during a super middleweight championship bout at T-Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images According to numerous reports on Thursday evening, Jake Paul and Canelo Alvarez were very close to fighting on May 3rd in Las Vegas.
However, at the 11th hour, the fight fell through. Alvarez decided that he would not be fighting the YouTube sensation turned professional boxer. Instead, he agreed to a four-fight deal with Turki Alalshikh and Riyadh Season to face Terence Crawford in September.
Alvarez vs. Crawford will be a major pay-per-view event. Alvarez said he only fights real fighters, not YouTubers. But according to Paul, he had a signed contract ready to go with Alvarez that would have streamed on Netflix, similar to his spectacle with Mike Tyson a few months ago.
“The truth is, you could be bought,” Paul said to Alvarez in a video on social media. “You call me a YouTuber, but you’ve never had a boxing match as big as mine.”
Paul explained that the fight was ready to be announced on Tuesday, even showcasing the poster that was set to be used to promote it.
Well, it’s not happening. And we’re all probably better off for it. To Alvarez’s credit, he is a real fighter. And he is arguably the best boxer of this generation—the generation that is labeled to be the one that “killed boxing.”
And Paul already grilled Alvarez for not doing anything for the future of the sport, especially outside of the ring. There’s no doubt that this fight promotion would have been a massive social media click-fest, similar to the Tyson vs. Paul buildup. Paul just started fighting within this decade, while Alvarez has been doing this his whole life, and Paul would’ve found every possible moment to remind us of that fact.
As a professional, Alvarez is 62-2-2. The latest loss came in 2022 to Dmitry Bivol in a bout where Alvarez tried to move up in weight. He’s 5-0 since. And the other loss? That one was to Floyd Mayweather.
Meanwhile, Paul continues to state that his goal is to become a world champion. There’s no denying that fighting Alvarez, who is 34 years old, would have been the toughest test yet. Viral knockouts of former NBA and UFC opponents like Nate Robinson, Ben Askren and Tyron Woodley put Paul on the map, but the boxers that he’s faced professionally are nowhere close to being as decorated as Alvarez.
Nobody’s denying that this would have been the biggest fight since Paul squared off with Tyson, but that one really was a joke. Tyson stood no chance. If anything, Paul took it easy on him throughout the last few rounds.
A fight with Alvarez would have been much, much different, as the younger, less experienced Paul would’ve been the one with concerns about safety.
It’s probably for the best for everyone that this fight is not happening. Paul will find another avenue to entertain us, delivering a massive event in whatever he decides to do next. That’s what he does best. He’ll forever be able to say that one of the faces of boxing ducked him and pulled out of an agreement at the last moment. Another feather in his cap.
Alvarez will get an opportunity to handle the “real boxing” against Crawford in September in an event that will undoubtedly pay him very handsomely.
