Jake Paul’s hopes of landing a mega-fight with Canelo Alvarez took a massive hit when Turki Alalshikh swooped in and secured a four-fight deal with the boxing champion instead. Alalshikh also mocked Paul by suggesting an alternative fight that would essentially be fit for his station.
Earlier this week, media reports had claimed that Jake and Canelo had agreed terms and were set to duke it out soon. This would have been a game changer for Jake, who has repeatedly been accused of courting gimmicky fights with retired veterans like Mike Tyson and Anderson Silva.
To make matters worse, Alalshikh then joked about Canelo being too young for Jake anyway and said,
“I think Canelo too young to take this fight. You can have it after 30 years when he is 60. Let them bring Mr. Beast and we can sanction it with Disney for the belt of YouTube and everyone will subscribe and see it. Everyone will see it and the YouTuber belt.”
Turki Alalshikh said he wants to put on Jake Paul vs. MrBeast for the Disney Youtube belt pic.twitter.com/pZlZC8fLOo
— Happy Punch (@HappyPunch) February 7, 2025
The combat sports community was also quick to jump on the ‘Jake Paul misery’ bandwagon and praised Alalshikh for teaching him a lesson in diplomatic pugilism.
This man found it funny that the Saudi minister put Jake in his place and said, “Bro just cooked Paul”, while another pointed out that “bro is dropping diss tracks“
Bro just cooked Paul
— Unanimous Decision ⚔️ (@UnanimousDC) February 8, 2025
This man, who seemed rather relieved that Canelo wasn’t entertaining a farce of a fight with Jake, added, “No boxing fan wants to see that garbage”.
No boxing fan wants to see that garbage
— Muhammad Zain (@_muhammadzain1) February 7, 2025
Needless to say, Paul looked visibly infuriated after the perceived betrayal and posted a 1-minute rant calling out Canelo.
Paul disses Canelo for fighting Crawford
Canelo vs Terence Crawford has essentially been talked about for years now. But while promoters had been circling around this mega fight for ages, nothing concrete had ever come out of it.
However, since Alalshikh’s involvement, it has been reported that the two pugilists have come really close to an argument. The only debate to be had here is what the agreed weight class would be. Canelo has fought at middleweight, light middleweight, and super middleweight while Crawford has moved around from lightweight to welterweight.
Obviously, there is a certain discrepancy there. And that is what Jake targeted while venting out his frustration. At first, he accused Canelo of lying about not wanting to fight YouTubers and confirmed that they had a signed contract for the fight. The YouTuber-turned-boxer then complained about the WBO, WBC, and WBA super middleweight champion dodging someone like David Benavidez in favor of fighting the 135-pounder, Crawford.
Claiming that Canelo had no integrity, Paul added,
“You’re a money hungry squirrel chasing your next nut. These sport washing shady characters are paying you hundreds of millions of dollars to stop our fight from happening.”
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Jake wrapped up his rant by reminding Canelo that his fights are the ones that bring in the biggest numbers. Unfortunately for Jake, with Alashikh and the Riyadh season getting involved, that might not be the case in the near future.