Canelo Alvarez signed a four-fight deal with Riyadh Season late Thursday night, squashing rumors of a finalized plan for the Mexican star to fight YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul and instead turning Alvarez’s gaze towards a September megafight with Terence Crawford.
Alvarez’s first fight on his deal with the Saudi Arabian promotion will see him enter the ring in early May for a tune-up bout. The proposed bout with Paul was also reportedly eying an early May date, but Alvarez will likely face Jermall Charlo or Bruno Surace in Saudi Arabia, ESPN reported.
That would set the stage for a megafight with former undisputed welterweight and undisputed light welterweight champion Crawford four months later.
Alvarez and Crawford are slated to fight on Sept. 13 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, the weekend ahead of Mexican Independence Day. Alvarez has fought on the holiday 10 times in his career, including his loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013, his draw with Gennady Golovkin in 2017 and his dominant win over Edgar Berlanga last year.
After news of Alvarez’s Riyadh Season deal broke, Crawford wrote on X, “I’m waiting on Canelo in September and going to shock the world in Riyadh Season!”
Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, announced Alvarez’s Riyadh Season deal on X. It includes Alvarez fighting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s capital, for the first time and booking two more fights in 2026.
Let’s go brother 👊🏻 https://t.co/Wy1PYfSWcY
— Canelo Alvarez (@Canelo) February 7, 2025
Alvarez, 34, famously became the first boxer to become undisputed champion at super middleweight in 2021. In his 66-fight career, his only losses have come against Mayweather at light middleweight and against Dmitry Bivol at light heavyweight in 2022. He drew a controversial split draw against Gennady Golovkin in 2017 at middleweight, then won the rematch a year later via majority decision.
A rematch against Bivol could come in 2026 as part of the second half of Alvarez’s Riyadh Season deal, ESPN reported.
Crawford, 37, is 41-0 and most recently defeated Israil Madrimov in August to win the WBA and WBO light middleweight titles.
(Photo: Steve Marcus / Getty Images)
