Jake Paul’s final call to Canelo Alvarez backfired before he even opened his mouth.

Days after admitting that doctors may never clear him to fight again following his disastrous loss to Anthony Joshua, Paul suddenly resurfaced, talking about a $200 million fight against boxing’s biggest busy star.

The moment immediately raised eyebrows as Paul no longer looks like a man in full control of his future in boxing.

Paul’s comments were made while standing in front of a brand associated with his bookmaking interests, making the moment feel less like an actual fight negotiation and more like another attempt to force a viral spectacle while uncertainty continues to surround his future.

After all, if Paul is unable to fight again, questions will immediately begin to arise about the long-term future of his relationship with Netflix and the massive crossover business model built around it.

This is the first problem.

Jake Paul has health concerns

Paul is still recovering from a brutal knockout loss to Anthony Joshua that left him with a double jaw fracture that required surgery and titanium plates implanted in his face.

Joshua dropped Paul four times before knocking him out in a one-sided beating that changed the entire perception of Jake Paul as a boxing attraction.

Over the years, Paul has carefully controlled the danger, selling the illusion of risk against former MMA fighters and aging names.

Joshua destroyed this illusion in one night.

Now all major fight explanations come back to the same question: Can Jake Paul physically withstand the punishment of elite-level boxing anymore?

This is the second problem.

Canelo’s contract reality

The third problem may be the most essential of all, as Paul appears to be targeting the one superstar who is currently least available to him.

Canelo is already locked into a lucrative, long-term, season-long deal in Riyad with Turki Alalshikh, who has never seemed enthusiastic about “Jack Paul,” as Turki calls him, or about influential boxing entering the elite side of the sport.

Paul already lost Canelo once when the Mexican superstar walked away from previous negotiations in favor of a Saudi-backed deal reportedly worth more than $200 million.

Since then, Canelo’s game plan has become more structured.

The Mexican icon is expected to face Christian Mbilli in September, with Hamzah Sheeraz potentially replacing him as titles begin to reassert themselves in the super middleweight division.

There is also continued hope that Osleys Iglesias and Jaime Munguia will be able to eventually unify the belts, potentially setting up another undisputed championship scenario for Canelo later in the Riyadh Agreement.

Barring a possible Terence Crawford rematch, it doesn’t appear that Saudi Arabia will deviate from this structure in favor of a crossover with Jake Paul.

This reality leaves Paul chasing a fight that already seems to be moving away from him.

Jake Paul’s desperation?

None of this means that Jake Paul can’t continue to generate huge amounts of money.

He remains one of the biggest crossover attractions in combat sports and understands social media promotion better than almost anyone else in boxing.

However, the timing of this last call created a challenging perception problem.

Flashing back to retirement concerns and long-term health issues, then suddenly saying he had $200 million ready for Canelo the next, made the whole situation seem more desperate than realistic.

Instead of reviving the post-Joshua vigorous, the call-out may have reminded boxing fans that Jake Paul suddenly looks much closer to the end of his boxing career than the beginning of a recent era of superfights.

About the author

Phil Jay is the editor-in-chief of World Boxing News (WBN) and a boxing veteran with over 15 years of experience. Read the full biography.

“Keyshawn, Shakur is taking down all his opponents, brother. Your second fiddle. Straight ahead,” Bradley said on his YouTube channel. “You are Shakur’s second fiddle. Shakur is the dad. You are the son.”

Things get more complicated because Keyshawn and Shakur still call each other brothers and show little interest in fighting each other. This puts Keyshawn in an awkward position at 140 pounds because he is ranked No. 1 by the WBO while Shakur holds the title.

If Shakur doesn’t advance or vacate the belt again, Keyshawn’s path to a world title shot will be blocked by the same fighter Bradley says has been ahead of him all along.

This is a real problem for Keyshawn’s career because he is already 27 years venerable and still chasing the breakout fight that will make him a massive star.

The uncomfortable part about Keyshawn is that his career slowed down at the wrong time. He is already 27 years venerable and still has not had a decisive fight that would make him a real attraction. Instead, he’s headed to a rematch with Albright, a fight many fans feel like they’ve seen before.

Keyshawn recently said Top Rank wanted a rematch with Albright, but the bigger problem may be that there weren’t many realistic alternatives available. Bradley openly pointed out the risk-reward issue with Keyshawn.

“Keyshawn’s a damn good player, but he doesn’t have what it takes to be that player, man. I’m willing to take that risk,” Bradley said.

This issue is unlikely to go away at lightweight or 140 as Keyshawn’s size has become part of the discussion. After losing four pounds before the canceled fight with Edwin De Los Santos, many fans already expect him to jump higher.

At this point, Keyshawn might be better off stopping the constant promotion talk and just doing it. A move up to welterweight or even junior middleweight could create modern opportunities and remove some of the criticism about his weight issues.

More importantly, fighters at 147 and 154 are unlikely to treat Keyshawn the same way as smaller fighters. The threat factor changes when he is no longer the naturally bigger man entering the ring.

Bradley still picked Keyshawn to beat Albright in the rematch and predicted a stoppage if he played like he did against Jermaine Ortiz.

Shane Mosley fought 61 times as a professional, facing some of boxing’s best operators in the lightweight and super welterweight divisions. Although there are two names that come to mind with Mosley as an opponent he could easily beat.

“Sugar” Shane Mosley competed for 23 years as a professional after turning into a prominent amateur. He famously went from reigning supreme at lightweight to dethroning welterweight ruler Oscar De La Hoya, and then repeated the feat at super welterweight, defeating the “Golden Boy” for a second time.

Although over the course of his legendary career, Mosley suffered 10 career and interview losses Fighting the noiseThe Californian admitted that the main reason was his desire to be the best, noting how other players would have beaten Ronald “Winky” Wright.

“[My mentality was]If I’m not the best fighter, find someone to beat me because I don’t want to be world champion if I’m not the best. I don’t want it if I’m not the best, I want to be the best. I didn’t ask for more money, I didn’t care.

“As a child, I wanted to be great, I wanted to be like Sugar Ray Leonard and Muhammad Ali. That was my destiny. My destiny is not about money, contracts or anything else. That’s why at certain moments I fought people who shouldn’t have fought. I didn’t choose my fights.

“It was like ‘Winky.’ [Wright]? Does no one want to fight him? OK, I’ll fight him.’ I wasn’t even a 154-pound fighter, I was a 147-pound fighter. ‘I’ll fight you because no one else wants to fight you.’ Winky then continues to fight [Felix] Trinidad and other people and he will get his chance in the sun.”

In 2004, defensive genius Wright beat Mosley twiceand Mosley also recalled how he could avoid fighting the only man to beat him twice, Vernon Forrest.

“Vernon Forrest, same thing. I didn’t have to fight him. I could have continued, dodged and danced. Then he went on and lost [Ricardo] “Majorga.”

Regardless of these defeats, Mosley was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2020 along with fellow champions Bernard Hopkins and Juan Manuel Marquez.