Jake Paul was understandably upset after believing a deal for a major fight against Canelo Alvarez was in place, only for it to fall through just before the fight was to be announced.
The boxer and YouTuber had prepared contracts and secured a partnership with Netflix for what was anticipated to be his most significant and challenging fight to date. However, instead of announcing the Canelo fight, Paul learned that the multi-division champion had signed a deal with Turki Alalshikh and Riyadh Season, a promotion based in Saudi Arabia known for organizing major boxing events.
Appearing on his brother Logan Paul’s YouTube channel, Jake expressed his disappointment after losing the chance to fight Alvarez.
“Pretty bad,” Paul said, describing his feelings about the situation. “I feel really bad. We were verbally agreed, Nakisa [Bidarian] signed the contract with Netflix on our side. It was in their inbox and they were saying ‘yeah we’re signing it.’ I’m angry.”
After Alvarez announced his multi-fight deal with Riyadh Season, Paul responded strongly in a viral video message directed at Alvarez, accusing him of negotiating in bad faith regarding their potential matchup.
Since the fight with Canelo did not materialize, Paul has not spoken much about his next steps, although he did jokingly mention buying a private plane to cope with his disappointment.
Regarding his future opponent now that Canelo is unavailable, Paul seems to be considering options beyond influencer boxing.
During the discussion about his future, Logan suggested that it might be time for Jake to fight fellow YouTube personality KSI, with whom Logan is in business through Prime Energy drinks.
Jake immediately dismissed the idea, explaining that he is not interested in fighting KSI or any other online celebrity in his upcoming bout.
“I want a real boxer,” Paul stated. “That’s why I wanted the most dangerous boxer.”
KSI is already scheduled to fight Dillon Danis in March, but it appears unlikely that a victory would gain him any consideration from Paul, despite their mutual dislike.
Paul’s last fight was in November, where he won by unanimous decision against Mike Tyson in an event that attracted over 100 million viewers on Netflix.
