Canelo Alvarez is not ready to jump the shark just yet … but he may be at some point.
The super middleweight star Alvarez appeared this week on “The Breakfast Club” ahead of his title fight this weekend against Jermell Charlo. At one point in the interview, Alvarez was asked if he would be open to fighting Jake Paul, who called Alvarez out after winning his latest bout against former UFC champion Nate Diaz.
“For me, not right now because I’m chasing other things in my career,” Alvarez said of a potential Paul fight. “But we never know. Maybe later.
“He can do whatever he wants, right?” Alvarez went on. “But I think it’s not for real boxing, for my career to put a fight in my record with Jake Paul.”
The four-division champion Alvarez (59-2-2, 39 KOs) is still at the top of his game at 33 years old. He continues to successfully defend his unified super middleweight title and is looking for his third straight victory after a 2022 upset loss to Dmitry Bivol by unanimous decision.
As for the YouTube star Paul (7-1, 4 KOs), he continues to build momentum in his pro boxing career. But Paul still is not seen as a legitimate boxer by many, especially since he mostly fights non-boxers. All of Paul’s wins have come against old ex-UFC fighters, former basketball players, or his fellow YouTubers. Meanwhile, Paul’s one career loss came against a very low-tier boxer in Tommy Fury (younger brother of heavyweight champ Tyson Fury).
Paul is years (or perhaps decades) away from being on the level of a fighter like Alvarez, one of the very best pound-for-pound fighters of this century. For Alvarez, he is big on the legitimacy of the sport, so it is not surprising that he won’t patronize Paul right now (though that could change once Alvarez is over the hill himself).
H/T theScore
