Jake Paul publicly pitched a fit when his fight with Canelo Alvarez fell apart three months ago.

Paul was incensed because he would’ve made an enormous amount of money to face the Mexican icon, more than enough to make the inevitable beating that awaited him worthwhile. Alvarez , 34, would’ve been far and away the most dangerous opponent of Paul’s five-year boxing career.

The ever-savvy Paul understood, though, that this would’ve been the perfect time to cash out on an endeavor he never envisioned becoming this lucrative when he was training for his pro debut against fellow YouTuber Ali Eson Gib in January 2020. After his farcical fight against a 58-year-old, injured Mike Tyson, whom the inventive Paul admitted he carried Nov. 15 in Arlington, Texas, he was running out of promotable opponents to help him avoid facing the legitimate cruiserweight contenders he swears he wants to fight.

When Alvarez walked away from their deal at the 11th hour to sign a four-fight contract with Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Season, “The Problem Child” threw a tantrum.

Paul eviscerated Alvarez in a video posted on social media, in which he revealed they were going to announce Feb. 11 that they would fight in a real boxing match May 3 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. They had an agreement in place for Netflix to stream their fight worldwide.

“Claiming he fights real fighters,” Paul said during his rant, “but he’s fighting [Terence] Crawford, a 135-pound fighter and running from a real fighter, like David Benavidez. You bitch! The truth is you can be bought. 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.”

Paul also attacked Alvarez for passing on a Netflix fight for a lower-profile pay-per-view bout with William Scull, an unknown opponent he needed to defeat to reunify all of boxing’s super middleweight titles in time for the Crawford fight Sept. 13. To be fair, Alvarez-Scull amounted to a torturous waste of time and money May 3 at ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

That doesn’t change that Paul completely contradicted himself since saying everything he said about Alvarez early in February.

“Al Haymon has made you hundreds of millions of dollars,” Paul said, “and you turned your back on him for this check. Disloyal. And you were begging to do this fight [with Paul] on pay-per-view. But I have loyalty — loyalty to Netflix. [We’re] doing the biggest numbers.”

The hypocritical Paul probably forgot he had said all these things as he sat on stage Wednesday in Hollywood promoting his cruiserweight fight with a besmirched Mexican, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. For those keeping track at home, Paul has done virtually everything he lambasted Alvarez for doing by agreeing to fight the 39-year-old on June 28 at Honda Center in Anaheim, California.

Their 10-rounder will be available via pay-per-view, not Netflix, and it’ll be distributed by DAZN. The same Saudi investors Paul condemned Alvarez for working with own a significant stake in DAZN.

As for Paul pursuing difficult fights, Alvarez dominated Chavez and shut him out on all three scorecards eight years ago at T-Mobile Arena. No one took Chavez remotely seriously then, which of course makes him the perfect, compromised opponent for Paul in 2025.

Since his lopsided loss to Alvarez, the controversial Chavez has been beaten by a then-46-year-old Anderson Silva, an MMA legend Paul already defeated in October 2022. Chavez also endured various personal problems that have contributed to the former WBC middleweight champion not producing a noteworthy win in a boxing ring since before he fought Alvarez.

Chavez (54-6-1, 34 KOs, 1 NC) is such a shell of a shell of what he once was, this should amount to a relatively easy night’s work even for a comparative novice such as Paul (11-1, 7 KOs).

That didn’t stop Paul from sticking to quite a sketchy script Wednesday.

“I think this fight’s been brewing for quite some time now,” he said. “The fans have wanted to see this and I wanna continue to elevate and rise my opponents. And this is a former world champion. He has an amazing resume following in his dad’s footsteps — and coming short of course. But this guy is a great fighter and I wanna test myself against the best in the world.”

Yes, you read that correctly. Paul — who called Alvarez “a bitch” for fighting an undefeated four-division champion who remains one of boxing’s best, pound-for-pound — characterized Chavez as “a great fighter.”

To Paul, apparently saying, not seeing, is believing.

Manny Pacquiao predictably appeared at No. 5 when the WBC’s newest welterweight rankings were released this week.

Contenders must be rated in the top 15 in any division to qualify for a world title shot, thus it wasn’t the least bit surprising Pacquiao became eligible just in time to challenge WBC 147-pound champion Mario Barrios on July 19 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Despite his 3½-year retirement, Pacquiao (62-8-2, 39 KOs) remains one of boxing’s most marketable stars and will enable Barrios and the WBC to make more money in purses and sanctioning fees.

If WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman simply admitted placing Pacquiao in the rankings is about business, not merit, we could at least credit him for being honest. Instead, Sulaiman, as he tends to do, lectured critics and pointed out that his late father, Jose, sanctioned Marvin Hagler-Ray Leonard as a middleweight title fight when he was president of the WBC.

Leonard hadn’t competed in nearly three years and moved up in weight when he challenged Hagler 38 years ago.

Mauricio Sulaiman ignored, of course, that Leonard was 30 when he edged Hagler by split decision to win their famous fight in April 1987 in Las Vegas. Hagler was 32 when they fought.

At 46, Pacquiao is more than a decade past his physical prime and 17 years older than Barrios (29-2-1, 18 KOs). The Filipino legend hasn’t won a fight in almost six years, either, and lost his last bout to Cuba’s Yordenis Ugas by unanimous decision in August 2021 at T-Mobile Arena.

The WBC didn’t stop at Pacquiao’s peculiar placement in its 147-pound rankings, though.

It inserted Conor Benn at No. 3. England’s Benn (23-1, 14 KOs) lost a unanimous decision to rival Chris Eubank Jr. on April 26 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London.

That high-profile fight was contested at the middleweight maximum of 160 pounds. Even stranger, Benn hasn’t competed in the welterweight division in three years.

The WBC’s No. 1 welterweight contender, Devin Haney, obviously has the credentials to warrant that high of a ranking.

The problem is that Haney (32-0, 15 KOs, 1 NC) has never fought at the welterweight limit of 147 pounds. The closest he has come was his unanimous points win over Jose Ramirez (29-3, 18 KOs) on May 2 in Times Square, contested at a contracted catch weight of 144.

Meanwhile, Abel Ramos is ranked beneath Haney, Benn and Pacquiao — ninth among the WBC’s welterweight contenders. Ramos (28-6-3, 22 KOs) battled Barrios to a 12-round split draw in the most recent fight for both boxers, Nov. 15 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

If you’ve seen Osleys Iglesias in the ring, you understand why the unbeaten super middleweight’s handlers are having such trouble finding credible contenders to fight the 27-year-old Cuban. The intelligent, skillful, strong Iglesias, No. 3 in The Ring’s 168-pound ratings, has a 92 percent knockout ratio (13-0, 12 KOs) and only one of his last seven opponents made it past the fifth round. … The California State Athletic Commission will vote at its next meeting June 2 whether to overturn Charly Suarez’s controversial technical-decision loss to WBO junior lightweight champ Emanuel Navarrete on Saturday night at Pechanga Arena in San Diego. Suarez’s left hand clearly caused the cut over Navarrete’s left eyebrow that led a ringside physician to perhaps prematurely stop their 12-round, 130-pound championship match one second into the eighth round. … The consensus seems to be that Pacquiao is too old to fight again. His former promoter, Bob Arum, is more than twice as old as Pacquiao, yet the 93-year-old Hall-of-Famer still goes to Top Rank’s headquarters in Las Vegas most days to conduct business.