There are images from our lives that are permanently seared into our memories. People of a certain age will never forget what they were doing when Kennedy was shot or when Neil Armstrong set foot on the surface of the moon live on our TV screens.
For sports fans, maybe it’s Tom Brady hoisting the Lombardi Trophy after falling behind 28-3, or Mike Tyson, desperately clawing for his mouthpiece after Buster Douglas altered the course of boxing history.
We all have these moments, indelibly etched into our minds, unshakable.
Which is why I’ll never forget my own reaction when news broke that Jake Paul —Jake freaking Paul— had signed a deal to fight Canelo Alvarez on Netflix.
I threw up in my mouth.
Canelo is to modern boxing what Frank Sinatra was to entertainment decades ago, the chairman of the board. He is what we loved about boxing: Fearless, athletic, competitive as hell and arrogant enough to believe there isn’t a man alive he couldn’t defeat.
Jake Paul created a brilliant business, and no one could fault him for that. He took this boxing idea and ran with it, right into the Money Mayweather tax bracket.
But in boxing terms, he was PeeWee Herman to Canelo’s Sinatra.
He made his money by playing to the lowest common denominator: He’d talk outrageous trash, promised all sorts of dread upon his opponents and then arrange the matches in a way so that he had no real chance to lose.
He’d fight guys way smaller and took on social media stars and ex-NBA players and MMA fighters. He bragged he was the biggest name in boxing even though he wasn’t boxing anyone who, you know, boxed.
And if we’re being fair? He wasn’t entirely wrong because he became a household name almost overnight in the sport. But that was the whole problem. He was driving boxing fans nuts by refusing to fight real boxers, and rubbed it in their noses repeatedly.
Yeah, he fought Tyson, among the realest fighters to ever lace ‘em up. Paul, though, fought a 58-year-old who hadn’t been Tyson in more than a quarter of a century. Tyson wasn’t fit to compete, but since when has that stopped Texas from licensing a carnival act if there’s a buck in it?
Canelo may have made $100 million, or more, if he’d signed the deal to fight Paul. Money May called these kinds of bouts “easy work.” Well, he called nearly every bout easy work, but you get what I mean.
Turki Alalshikh, who recently bought Ring Magazine, had his own plans for Alvarez, and he competes as ruthlessly as anyone ever has.
Alalshikh didn’t just play hardball, he played dirty. He knowingly fed false nuggets to Ring journalists to warp negotiations in his favor. The ploy worked brilliantly.
Matchroom
Turki Alalshikh outmaneuvered Jake Paul in the Canelo Alvarez negotiations.
As everyone was looking one way, Alalshikh sauntered in from the opposite direction and swept in at the stroke of midnight to swipe Alvarez from Paul’s clutches.
We’ll get Alvarez versus Terence Crawford on Sept. 13 as a result of Alalshikh’s machinations and Paul, for once, is the one wondering the license number of the truck that face-planted him.
Paul’s partner, Nakisa Bidarian, had worked out a deal with Netflix to televise the Alvarez-Paul bout. Despite the absurdity of the 28-year-old Paul fighting a 58-year-old, Netflix’s stream of the Tyson fight landed in 65 million homes. Imagine what a fight with Alvarez would have done.
Once Alvarez signed the contract, Paul would have been the biggest winner in boxing history, a guy who can’t really fight at the top level landing an eight- or nine-figure deal to face one of the best in the world.
Alvarez could have, and would have, left him a bloodied, battered mess and Paul would still have come out on top.
He appeared on his brother Logan’s podcast and was predictably sour.
“I feel really bad,” he said. “We’ve literally, we’ve verbally agreed. Nakisa signed the contract with Netflix on our side. It was in their inbox and they’re like ‘Yeah, we’re signing it.’ I’m pissed.”
Now he knows how boxing fans have felt the last couple of years.
Paul’s worked hard and he’s made himself a decent boxer; he’s not world-class, but if we’re being honest, he’s basically a mid-level cruiserweight.
The issue has been that he’s given himself such massive advantages. It was 30 years against Tyson. Against Alvarez, it would have been massive size; Canelo was 166 3/4 in his last bout against Edgar Berlanga. Paul was 227 1/4 against Tyson.
Size matters when the fighters are of relatively equal skill levels. Paul had agreed to fight Canelo at 200 pounds, but even with Paul at 227 1/4 and Canelo at 166 3/4, Paul would have been decimated and beaten to a pulp.
There’s an easy solution to this from Paul’s side:
Fight either Jai Opetaia (27-0, IBF cruiserweight champ) or Zurdo Ramirez (47-1, WBO king). In whatever order you want to flip them, they’re the two best cruiserweights in the world.
Rachel Denny Clow/Imagn Images
WBO cruiserweight champion Gilberto "Zurdo" Ramirez would be a good potential opponent for Jake Paul
The money wouldn’t be the same as it would have to fight Alvarez, but then, Alvarez is boxing’s Warren Buffet.
If Paul were to finally fight a real fighter, like one of these two guys, the money would still be astronomical. If he wins, it’d give Paul the opportunity to flip the bird to his many critics who howl at the carnival sideshows he calls boxing matches.
If he was willing to face Canelo, one of the 6-8 best fighters in the world, neither Opetaia nor Ramirez should be a bridge too far.
Paul’s a genius when it comes to making money, and boxing needs far more like him who have creative minds and think outside the box like he does.
The side benefit for him is, if he legitimizes himself by winning, or losing in a competitive manner, the money will be even bigger down the line. It’s almost a no-lose proposition for him.
He’s talked the talk for the last five years. Now it’s time for him to make the walk — against some who can really fight back on even terms.
-1738827917-q80.webp "Denzel Ward Doubts His Browns Future After Myles Garrett Trade Request")
