Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez pulled off quite a heist with his four-fight deal with the Saudi-owned Riyadh Season last week. The Mexican superstar boxer, after all, was in talks with Jake Paul to get a fight done, until he shockingly announced the Saudi deal on February 6. Needless to say, ‘The Problem Child’ was furious since Alvarez-Paul was extremely close to done.

How close exactly? Well, former UFC heavyweight and podcaster Brendan Schaub revealed details about it on his ‘The Fighter and the Kid’ podcast. But Joe Rogan‘s friend, as usual, started off with a claim which would leave many fans scratching their heads.

“Jake versus Canelo is a bigger fight than [Canelo] and I already forgot the guy’s name, that’s the truth,” Schaub said. ‘The other guy’, of course, is Terence Crawford. ‘Bud’ happens to be the #2 pound-for-pound boxer in the world, whom boxing fans universally and desperately want to see fight the Mexican legend. In fact, that may be the biggest fight that could be made in the entire sport at the moment. And this is contrary to Schaub’s claim. But we digress. Now let us get back to Schaub’s scoop on the Alvarez-Paul fight.

“I know for a fact being very close to the situation, super close [to the] situation, the fight was basically done, Jake and Canelo was going down. ‘Cuz he ran into him at Trump’s inauguration, oh, and then Jake was going to go on Rogan and talk about it and announce it. And then [Turki] Alalshikh was like ‘nope.’ That’s how close they were,” the podcaster claimed.

Schaub, of course, is close to Joe Rogan, and often appears on the latter’s podcast. Since Paul was apparently scheduled to go on JRE when he thought he was fighting ‘Canelo’, the podcaster may have gotten this scoop from the UFC commentator or his team. Paul has indeed claimed that the deal with Alvarez was signed and he was going to announce it on Saturday.

However, fate had different plans. In fact, it seems Alvarez was just using Paul to try and secure a better deal with the Turki Alalshikh-led Riyadh Season. Why do we say that? Well, because of what ‘Canelo’ said after ditching Paul.

“Hey guys, don’t pay attention to anything [from] this f–king Youtuber. I just fight real fighters… no f–king around with Canelo,” Alvarez said with a devious smile after the Saudi deal was announced.

Needless to say, Paul was infuriated and accused the Mexican superstar of, well surprisingly, wanting to make the most money he could. “The truth is, you could be bought. You’re a money-hungry squirrel chasing your next nut. 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,” Paul vented online after losing the potential ‘Canelo’ fight.

To be fair, Paul’s vitriolic reaction is understandable. A fight against Alvarez would have given ‘The Problem Child’ what he desperately wants. The respect of the fight fans and legitimacy as a boxer! Not anymore. But this has made some of Paul’s critics very happy.

Dana White and Turki Alalshikh dance on the grave of Jake Paul vs. Canelo Alvarez fight

Dana White and Jake Paul do not like each other. And this is an understatement. It was therefore not surprising to see the UFC CEO be gleeful at Paul’s misfortune. It is safe to say that the Las Vegas resident doesn’t believe in the old maxim. Don’t kick a man when he’s down.

“Listen, they [the Saudis] control the sport of boxing right now. I don’t think it’s hard for them to steal anybody from anybody. I don’t know the ins and outs of that deal but I’m sure it’s not too hard to steal somebody away from [Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions] to Saudi. Totally different levels. Not even the same universe of levels,” White told reporters after UFC 312 this Saturday.

And Alalshikh apparently is a professional comedian when he’s not making the biggest fights in the world. How else do you explain his hilarious roasting of Paul over his proclivity to fight old guys and for losing the ‘Canelo’ fight?

“I think Canelo is too young to take this sight. You can have it after 30 years when he is 60. Let them bring [popular YouTuber] 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,” the Chairman of Saudi’s General Entertainment Authority said in a video. What do you think about Brendan Schaub’s revelations about the Jake Paul-Canelo Alvarez situation?