Canelo Alvarez, Jake Paul, and Riyadh Season stole the biggest headlines this week in boxing.
The biggest news of the week, obviously, revolved around Canelo Alvarez, Jake Paul, and Turki Alalshikh, as within hours, we had an absolute mess of news.
First, it was reported that Canelo Alvarez vs Jake Paul for May 3 was all but a done deal. Then, Alalshikh reportedly scrapped plans for Canelo to face Terence Crawford in September because of those reports. And finally, Alalshikh announced that he had signed Canelo to a four-fight deal with Riyadh Season, which struck some boxing fans as a bit funny, feeling that Paul had simply been used by Canelo to drive up his price with the Riyadh team:
Canelo’s plans include a May 3 fight — which we’ll get to in a moment — then Crawford in September, and fights in February and October of 2026. Many names have been listed as targets, and none of them are David Benavidez, which has led to further criticism of Canelo’s recent resume as one of boxing’s biggest stars.
In response to the ordeal, Paul blasted Canelo and Alalshikh, calling his would-be rival “a money-hungry squirrel,” and adding, “The truth is, these sports-washing, shady characters are paying you hundreds of millions of dollars to stop our fight from happening, because they couldn’t fathom the fact that they can’t create a bigger fight than me and you.”
While there is belief that Paul isn’t necessarily wrong in his assessment of the situation, it’s also a little hard for serious boxing fans to take him all that seriously given what his “boxing career” has been to date.
We also now know that Canelo’s May 3 fight will be his attempt to go undisputed again at 168 lbs, as he’ll face IBF titleholder William Scull in Riyadh, in what will be Canelo’s first fight ever outside of the United States or Mexico.
Despite being an undisputed title fight, it’s not generating much excitement, because Scull just doesn’t seem a legitimate threat to Canelo on paper.
The weekend’s biggest fight saw Derek Chisora dig in and out-fight Otto Wallin, then propose Oleksandr Usyk, Anthony Joshua, and Daniel Dubois as his 50th and potential final opponent.
When proposed to the live audience in Manchester, it was Joshua’s name that drew the biggest roar of approval.
Also in the news this week:
- Patrick Stumberg had a terrific post on Jeison Rosario, a former titleholder who has become PBC cannon fodder over recent years:
Rosario gets dropped often and in alarming fashion, his body twisting and jerking as though someone were randomly flipping breakers in his head. No ragdoll physics moments, no stoic taking of a knee; he goes down like some fundamental part of him broke. … There are different varieties of “shot.” Sometimes fighters still have the technique, but lose too much durability to remain competitive. Sometimes an ingrained, load-bearing flaw becomes common knowledge. Rosario looked the scariest kind of shot against Ramos. Slow, plodding, unable to put weight behind punches or throw a meaningful quantity.
- Naoya Inoue’s next fight is nearly set, as the undisputed super bantamweight king will face Alan Picasso on June 14 in Las Vegas. It will be Inoue’s first fight in the States since 2021.
- Janibek Alimkhanuly will defend his middleweight titles against Anauel Ngamissengue on April 5.
- Regis Prograis is out of his February 15 fight with Oscar Duarte, and Miguel Madueno has stepped in as his replacement.
- Former heavyweight titlist Charles Martin is taking aim at top prospect Moses Itauma.
- Heavyweight Delicious Orie, who represented Great Britain in the Paris Olympics, has signed with Queensberry Promotions.
- KSI and Dillon Danis have again signed to fight, this time in March. We’ll see if it actually happens, and frankly we won’t really care if it does or doesn’t!
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