Report: Canelo, Jake Paul finalizing deal for May 3 fight

Canelo Álvarez and Jake Paul are finalizing an agreement to fight on May 3 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, sources told ESPN's Mike Coppinger.

The cruiserweight bout will be contested at the weight class' 200-pound limit, Coppinger reports. It will be streamed worldwide on Netflix.

The fight will go down on the Saturday before Cinco de Mayo, a national holiday in Mexico. Álvarez, a native of Guadalajara, has often staged fights on Cinco de Mayo weekend, almost all of them in Las Vegas.

Álvarez had apparently reached a deal with Terence Crawford last week for a 168-pound title fight in September. However, The Ring Magazine reported Wednesday that the Álvarez-Crawford bout had been called off.

With Canelo now set to face Paul, the chairman of Saudi Arabia's General Entertainment Authority, Turki Alalshikh, has opted to no longer pursue an Álvarez-Crawford fight, sources told Coppinger. Instead, Alalshikh - who had offered Álvarez a three-fight contract that included facing Crawford - is now shifting his focus to pitting "Bud" against Jaron "Boots" Ennis in late 2025.

Álvarez, the reigning WBO, WBA, and WBC super middleweight champion, enters the fight with a 62-2-2 record. The Mexican icon has won titles in four weight classes during his decorated career. His only loss since 2013 was to Dmitry Bivol in 2022 after he moved up one weight class.

Paul, a YouTuber turned fighter, owns an 11-1 professional record with seven knockouts. "The Problem Child" has become one of boxing's most visible faces since beginning his career in 2020 and started his own boxing promotion company, Most Valuable Promotions, in 2021.

The 28-year-old's most recent fight was an eight-round unanimous win over former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson this past November. Paul's only loss was a split-decision defeat to Tommy Fury last February in Saudi Arabia.

Many in the boxing world would immediately point to Álvarez as the face of the sport, but Paul appears intent on challenging that notion.

"A-Side in every fight I've been in and that's not changing for this one," he wrote on X on Thursday.