Jake Paul punches back at Canelo Alvarez, calling him a 'money-hungry squirrel'

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Jake Paul punched back at Canelo Alvarez on Friday night, a day after the Mexican boxing icon passed up a speculated bout with the YouTube star and agreed to a four-fight deal with Riyadh Season.

“The truth is, you could be bought,” Paul said to Alvarez on social media. “You’re a money-hungry squirrel chasing your next nut. The truth is, these sports-washing, shady characters are paying you hundreds of millions of dollars to stop our fight from happening because they couldn’t fathom the fact that they can’t create a bigger fight than me and you.”

Turki Alalshikh, the head of Riyadh Season and the General Entertainment Authority of Saudi Arabia, announced the four-fight deal Thursday on social media. The first fight would be in May in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and Terence Crawford — the long-reigning welterweight champion — might be his second fight in Las Vegas.

Alvarez has spent years as the biggest moneymaker in boxing, and the 34-year-old super middleweight champion used the threat of a stunt fight against Paul to leverage a major commitment from the Saudi Arabian government arm that has flooded the sport with money in the past few years.

“You call me a YouTuber, but you’ve never had a boxing match as big as mine,” Paul said. “I promise you one thing, Canelo. Any fight that you do this year, mine will be bigger.”

Alvarez would have been an astronomical favorite to beat Paul, who has turned himself into one of the biggest draws in combat sports while fighting mixed martial artists and 58-year-old Mike Tyson.

Alvarez last fought in September in Las Vegas, outpointing Edgar Berlanga to improve to 62-2-2. He has 39 knockouts.

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AP boxing: https://apnews.com/boxing