Freddie Roach, Teddy Atlas discuss if Terence Crawford could defeat Canelo Alvarez and if Jake Paul may have had a shot

Jake Paul did nothing -- in a boxing ring, at least -- to earn a bout with Canelo Alvarez, the unified super middleweight champion and pound-for-pound fixture. A social media influencer turned boxer, Paul is 11-1 with seven knockouts since turning professional on Jan. 30, 2020, with a win over social media star AnEsonGib.

Paul's only loss came to Tommy Fury, the half-brother of the former lineal heavyweight champion Tyson Fury. Tommy Fury is mediocre, at best, as a pro boxer.

Paul has six wins on former MMA fighters (two over Tyron Woodley and one each over Ben Askren, Anderson Silva, Nate Diaz and Mike Perry); one over a social media influencer (AnEsonGib); one over an ex-NBA Slam Dunk champ (Nate Robinson); two over D-minus pro boxers (Andre August and Ryan Bourland); and one over Mike Tyson, a boxing legend who was 58 at the time.

It's not the resume that strikes fear into the heart of world-class boxers. It certainly is not a resume which should have landed him a bout against Alvarez, one of the great fighters of this generation.

There's always a but, and the but in this case is that while Paul's skills as a boxer are pedestrian, he's arguably its best promoter and biggest draw. His bout with Tyson on Netflix on Nov. 15 was viewed by 65 million households, far more than any active boxer. That had a lot more to do with Tyson, who stands next to only Muhammad Ali as the greatest draw/attraction in boxing history.

Eddie Hearn, Alvarez's former promoter, speculated Thursday that Alvarez could be paid in excess of $100 million for fighting Paul, and said an Alvarez-Paul bout was the biggest which could be made in the sport.

As a boxer, Paul is ordinary, a mid-level cruiserweight at best. But as a promoter, there are few with his touch. And so it was hard not to feel badly for him when the bout was pulled out from beneath him at the last moment. Alvarez and his team clearly used the lucrative offer from Paul's Most Valuable Promotions as leverage to get a four-fight deal done with Riyadh Season and Turki Alalshikh.

That deal will see Alvarez fight IBF champion William Scull for the undisputed super middleweight championship in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in May. Then, he'll fight Terence Crawford in an enormous bout on Sept. 13 in Las Vegas. After that, he'll fight bouts in Riyadh in February 2026 and October 2026.

That deal was finalized after ESPN reported that Alvarez and Crawford had agreed to terms for a May fight in Las Vegas. 

"Don't mess with the lion," Alalshikh said after announcing the deal publicly on social media.

Paul took to social media on Saturday to rant about Alvarez using him to land a better deal with Alalshikh.

There were few boxing fans I know who were interested in seeing Alvarez versus Paul. Nearly every one of them is amped for Canelo versus Crawford, a bout that will potentially give Crawford the opportunity to become undisputed in a third weight class.

I asked a pair of Hall of Fame trainers, Freddie Roach and Teddy Atlas, if they thought Crawford has a chance to defeat Alvarez, which both think he does. Since Alvarez's level of opposition has declined dramatically in his last four fights, I also asked Roach and Atlas if they think that Paul could have beaten the versions of John Ryder, Jermell Charlo, Jaime Munguia and/or Edgar Berlanga could have defeated Alvarez. 

One of them said he wouldn't have ruled out Paul getting past Alvarez.

When Roach was asked if Paul could have defeated any of Ryder, Charlo, Munguia or Berlanga, Roach said, "No! No. No. No. No."

Atlas, though, spun the question. He used an analogy about the planets to note that he thought Paul would have had at least a shot at Alvarez. 

"Winning those fights, or some of them, is not the end-all to the question," Atlas said. "[Because winning those fights and] even the possibility of him winning versus Canelo because is like asking if an astronaut can land on Saturn, Jupiter, Venus, and Pluto in order to come to a conclusion if he can land on Mars. It doesn’t matter whether or not he can land on those other places. He only has to land on Mars and therefore his preparation will be concentrated on that one mission and moment alone. Who’s to say given an opportunity to prepare a very definitive fight plan for one night with a fighter who is getting up in age and will probably look at [him] as less challenging than normal, and with the always existing X factors ... Who’s to say it’s impossible?

"As I said leading into this, he does not have to land his ship on all those other planets, which, by the way, I agree would be difficult. In this case, he only has to land on one and only do it once."

Alvarez isn't fighting Paul, though. He'll fight Scull in May for the IBF title he surrendered last year. If he wins that, he'll put all four super middleweight belts up against Crawford. Crawford won a title at 135, was undisputed at 140 and 147 and won a belt and an interim belt at 154. If he defeats Alvarez and becomes the first undisputed champion in three weight classes in the four-belt era, it might be the greatest feat in modern boxing.

The great Henry Armstrong simultaneously held the featherweight, lightweight and welterweight titles during an era in boxing in which there were only eight weight classes. He fought for a middleweight crown against Ceferino Garcia on March 1, 1940, in an attempt to win a fourth, but the fight was a draw. Nothing in boxing has ever topped holding three weight class titles simultaneously, but for Crawford to win three undisputed titles in this era would be extraordinary.

Atlas said Alvarez is declining a bit physically and that it's not out of the realm of possibility for Crawford, who posted on social media Sunday that he weighs 186 pounds, could pull it off.

"He’s not nearly as busy as he once was, and he is much more paced and selective with his offense now," Atlas said. "His feet were never fast, as witnessed years ago when he couldn’t close the gaps with [Floyd] Mayweather and later with [Erislandy] Lara. So if Crawford can fight a disciplined fight at range, using his legs appropriately, getting angles and controlling pace, yeah, he can win."

Roach also gave Crawford a chance but it appears Crawford will not fight again until he meets Alvarez. That'll mean it's 13 months since he would have last fought come fight night.

But Roach did not rule out an upset.

"I do think he can win, but it’s not going to be easy," Roach said. "Activity is not on his side, but Crawford will have to take Canelo out to deep water and go past his [own] limits. Crawford will have to go to a place he's never been before to get this done. To be honest, it's been a long time since Canelo fought someone of his caliber. I think it's obvious that's what's in Crawford's favor, really."