In the hours leading up to super-middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez signing a multi-fight deal with Riyadh Season, beginning with a May 3 unification clash with Cuba’s William Scull in Saudi Arabia, it was widely known in boxing circles that the Mexican was in talks about a Las Vegas showdown with Jake Paul instead.

“You need to play your cards,” Alvarez told Barstool Sports when asked if those talks were genuine. “It would not be a fight [versus Paul] but it would be an event. [It is] not for the moment.”

The 34-year-old, 62-2-2 (39 KOs), is now fully focused on Scull, an unbeaten but largely untested IBF belt-holder. He will mark Alvarez’s first bout with a Cuban since Erislandy Lara gave him a tough fight back in 2014.

“I know he has a lot of skill because he had a lot of amateur fights,” Canelo said of his 23-0 (9 KOs) opponent. “They [Cubans] have a particular style and it’s a little bit difficult. 

“But I’ve fought every style and I can adapt to any style. This will be no exception.”

The bout, Canelo’s first outside of North America, is being dressed up as an undisputed contest, even though it is only so because Canelo gave up the IBF title due to not being interested in fighting Scull in the past.

“I am already the only undisputed super-middleweight champion so now I will be the only two-time undisputed champion,” he said. “We’re going to get there [Saudi Arabia] many weeks before the fight to get used to it.

“The motivation is to see new countries, to fight in new countries, and at this stage of my career I need that motivation.”