In the high-stakes chess game of boxing promotion, Canelo Alvarez orchestrated a masterclass in negotiation that left Jake Paul’s super fight dreams hanging in the balance. The Mexican superstar, boxing’s premier box office draw, dangled the possibility of a lucrative showdown that had ‘El Gallo’ as well the entire world invested. But Canelo, the master of the sweet science both in and out of the ring, had other plans.

For the uninitiated, the potential bout between Paul and Alvarez was initially set for May 3 later this year in Las Vegas. However, these plans ultimately fell through on February 6 after ‘Cinnamon’ reportedly had a ‘change of heart’, opting instead to sign a four-fight deal with Riyadh Season. With that decision, Canelo has once again shifted his focus back to a legacy fight with Terence Crawford—a possibility that was previously believed to be off the table but is now back in the mix.

Saudi Arabia’s Minister and Chairman of the General Entertainment Authority, Turki Alalshikh, took to social media to announce the same. He wrote via his X account, “Don’t mess with the lion 🦁… 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 co-signed the massive announcement with a reply on the post, “Let’s go brother.”

To be fair, the Mexican legend was negotiating with the Saudis before he was in talks with Paul. And it seems he used a potential fight with ‘The Problem Child’ as leverage to get better terms from Riyadh Season. Paul was sorely disappointed with this and had a virtual meltdown, at which UFC vet Josh Thomson and his co-host, ‘Big’ John McCarthy could not stop laughing at it.

“He’s [Jake Paul is] all bu–hurt now and pissed off. He’s like ‘Oh he [Canelo] went and took the money and didn’t want to fight me’. And wait aren’t you the guy basically saying like you should get, like a fighter should get paid the most money… He wasn’t going to make any more money fighting you, buddy,” a gleeful Thomson said on his ‘Weighing In’ podcast with McCarthy.

“He went, got more money from the other guy, the guy who has really deep pockets anyways. And then Jake made some video basically talking about his Mexican heritage and talking s–t,” he added.

Indeed, Paul took to social media and essentially called Alvarez, trashed his contributions to boxing a coward, and declared himself to be the new face of boxing. ‘Canelo’, for his part, rubbed salt in the ‘The Problem Child’s wounds, saying that he fights real fighters and not YouTubers like Paul.

On February 7, Alvarez posted a message directed to Paul on his social media handles. He could be heard in the video saying, “Hey guys, don’t pay attention to anything of this fuc—g YouTuber. I just fight real fighters. No f—–g around with Canelo. Come on, let’s go.”

Paul responded in kind and called Alvarez disloyal and essentially helping the Saudi government in their alleged sports wash program. This criticism was apparently a bridge too far for Turki Alalshikh. And so he came out guns blazing against the former Disney star. Let’s see what he had to say!

Turki Alalshikh excoriates Jake Paul after latter loses the surest way to becoming a legit boxer

Turki Alalshikh may be the most influential man in the boxing world at the moment. But more importantly, the Saudi official is funny, as he proved in his recent trashing of Jake Paul. What did Alalshik say exactly? We’ll let Josh Thomson summarize for you.

“And then you know the best part, John? …Turki Alalshikh said ‘You know what you should do Jake is you should call me when you get Mr. Beast. You can fight Mr Beast and I’ll have Disney promote it and put it on their network. He’s like ‘And you guys could fight for YouTube title,'” a clearly amused Thomson added.

On the other hand, it is understandable why Paul is so upset at losing the Canelo fight. As you can see, ‘The Problem Child’ isn’t taken seriously in the boxing world. And a fight with ‘Cinnamon’, the biggest boxing superstar at the moment, would have gone a long way in legitimizing Paul as a ‘real’ boxer. And not just someone who fights senior citizens and hand-picked retired mixed martial artists.

Not to mention a fight with ‘Canelo’ would have been a huge payday for Paul. Perhaps the biggest of his career so far! But fate (and Canelo) had different plans, which the combat sports world finds hilarious. What do you think about Josh Thomson’s take on the ‘Canelo-Jake Paul’ feud? Let us know in the comment section below!