The fixer, the YouTuber and the fight game’s biggest star

Complex saga sees Canelo Alvarez sign a four-bout deal with the Saudis, writes Alex Pattle, as Jake Paul just misses out

- Alex Pattle

Over the last few days, you might have found yourself asking any, or all, of the following questions: what on earth is going on with Canelo vs Crawford? What does Jake Paul have to do with it? Has Turki Alalshikh finally met a boxer he could not convince?

And depending on the day, hour, or even minute, the answers to those questions might have differed. This has been a Rubik’s Cube of a saga, with multiple hands seemingly picking up and putting down the puzzle, twisting and turning it until, in the end, Alalshikh placed it on the table, with every little square in its place.

What he really put on the table was a contract – or perhaps a series of connecting deals – for Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Yesterday brought an apparent end to this saga, or at least the following news: over the next two years, the Mexican icon will box four times as part of Riyadh Season. If all goes to plan, he will enter the ring in May, then in September, before fighting in February and October 2026. The only named opponent is Terence Crawford, who is due to box Canelo at Las Vegas’s Allegiant Stadium in September.

Canelo’s other opponents are almost irrelevant; the Crawford match-up will be the biggest – not just of this run, but of either man’s career, and nearly of this generation. What holds it back, in truth, is that it is a contrived contest.