A potential issue for the Canelo Alvarez vs. Jake Paul fight has emerged.
Canelo looked set for a September battle against fellow pound-for-pound star Terence Crawford, but it has now been reported that the fight is suddenly off, with confusion from boxing fans over the reason why.
One proposed theory is due to Alvarez now being linked to a May fight against Youtuber-turned-boxer Paul, who last fought in November when he defeated Mike Tyson in a controversial match-up.
Riyadh Season’s Turki Alalshikh was the driving factor behind the Canelo vs Crawford fight, having become one of the most important figures in boxing over the past 18 months.
Promoter Frank Warren has worked closely with Alalshikh during that time, so it is likely he could be aware of how the negotiations for the fight broke down.
He has revealed to Seconds Out that Canelo is instead choosing try and make the fight against Paul, but that one sticking point is the weight for the bout.
“The word on the street is they’re trying to make Canelo against Jake Paul and one of the sticking points is maybe the weight. Money will determine that.
“Everybody said they wanted to see Jake Paul fight somebody, well he’s going to be fighting somebody. It’s a tough fight, but I want to see the Crawford fight, that’s the fight I want to see.”
Canelo’s last five fights have all been at 168lbs, where he is the current WBC, WBA and WBO unified super-middleweight world champion.
It is a stark contrast to Paul, who weighed 227lbs for his clash against Tyson in November, while his three fights prior to that were at cruiserweight, where he weighed 200lbs.
The lightest Paul has weighed in his career was 183lbs during his defeat to Tommy Fury in February 2023, so it is difficult to see what weight could be decided for a fight against Canelo.
