By: Sean Crose
“Don’t mess with the lion,” Saudi sports honcho Turki Alalshikh posted to social media on Thursday. “4 fights for Canelo with Riyadh Season…The Deal is done…A Lion doesn’t lose sleep over opinion of a sheep…Fear the lion not the jungle.” Canelo Alvarez responded to this with three small words: “Let’s go brother.” What does all this mean? That Canelo has signed a four fight deal with Alalshikh. “Canelo in Riyadh in May” Alalshikh said in a video, “the big fight in the history of boxing in September then two more fights in 26. Don’t mess with the lion.” Say what one will about Alalshikh, the man may now be the most powerful name in boxing.
Although nothing official has been announced it’s assumed that a Canelo-Jake Paul fight (expected to go down in May) is now no longer happening. Instead, it appears that Canelo is now on the road to facing Terence Crawford once again in September. A clearly disappointed Paul took to social media himself. “Breaking news: Canelo Alvarez ducked me,” said Paul before adding that Canelo was “now an owned slave with no regard for the pride of the Mexican people who support him on US soil.”
The past few days have been absolutely wild for the sport of boxing. Things started with the breaking news that Canelo was going to meet Crawford in an autumn superfight. Then, completely out of the blue, word arrived that the Crawford fight was now dead in the water. The focus turned to Canelo facing Paul in May. And then news arrived of Canelo’s deal with Alalshikh. As things stand, it seems like Paul has been marginalized while a Canelo-Crawford bout appears to be very much on the agenda. Virtually nothing is guaranteed in boxing, however. While there’s no doubt the four fight contract with Alalshikh is legitimate, one really never knows who Canelo will be facing in 2025.
And while Canelo has recently been taking a lot of heat for not fighting the likes of David Benavidez, the incredible popularity of the man is well deserved. With a resume like his, Canelo’s earned the right to decide who he wants to sign a contract with and when. Canelo, even after all these years, arguably remains the premier attraction of the fight game. He also wants to be taken as seriously as possible, which made it seem strange when it appeared he’d be facing Paul in a novelty bout. Again, though, when you’re Canelo Alvarez, you can pretty much do whatever you want.
