Undefeated Former World Champion Meets YouTuber In The Boxing Ring
Author: Keziah Shamma Mahendran
Editor: Kishan Kumar Selvaraju
Source: Mayweather Promotions via Twitter
“They are making a mockery of the sport” said Twitter user @allyferguson as news of boxing's greatest mismatch between retired 50-0, 12-time, five-division boxing icon, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and winless YouTuber Logan Paul was made official, with an ‘exhibition’ bout that’s set to take place at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami on June 6.
The obvious imbalance in skill and expertise between 44-year old Mayweather and 26-year old Paul is astounding, making this whole face-off seem like a disrespect to the sport itself, according to boxing fans as well as several mixed martial artists and boxing athletes that took to social media to share their disgust and express outrage, although there are already many tuned in and are keeping tabs with the latest updates on this fight, obviously drawn in out of morbid curiosity by the outcome of this odd matchup.
“One of the pound-for-pound best fighters on the planet is taking on a complete novice. When people ask me what’s the state of boxing right now, that’s where it’s at,” said UFC president Dana White in an interview with talkSPORT, stupefied when he learned about the ‘exhibition’ bout.
The YouTuber and his brother Jake Paul, also with hopes to make it as a pro boxer himself has been trying to call out Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighters; a long list of experienced athletes, consisting of the UFC crowd, namely Conor McGregor, Daniel Cormier, Kamaru Usman, as well as professional boxers since they first debuted as professional boxers. Hence, it's no surprise that news of confirmation on the exhibition bout received mixed reactions from athletes and fans.
“Floyd’s gonna beat his f***ing a**” said Mike Tyson, the boxing legend himself when asked his opinion on the outcome of the bout, during a podcast discussing YouTube’s influence on boxing.
Mayweather, having defeated big names such as Manny “PacMan” Pacquiao, Oscar De La Hoya and last fought in 2017, MMA star, UFC’s Conor McGregor is expected by fans to claim a TKO victory against Paul, seeing as he only needed 140 seconds in the ring to knock out Japanese kickboxer and mixed martial artist, Tenshin Nasukawa in the last exhibition bout, almost a “laughable event” as put into words by ESPN.
Paul contrarily, winless as a professional boxer having lost his only pro bout to KSI, another fellow Youtuber obviously skipped through a whole bunch of steps, seeing as he is given the opportunity to immediately face what some may consider, one of the greatest boxer of all time despite being new to the scene, making it clear that this matchup indeed is just another cash grab from fans.
Despite negative reactions and comments stating how this match is bad for boxing, both Mayweather and Paul seem to be taking this fight seriously with heavy training as seen posted by the men via Instagram, preparing for the fight that’ll be taking place in a few weeks. The apparent difference in size between the men with 6 ft 2 inches tall Paul, towering over Mayweather standing at just 5 ft 8 inches, definitely makes this clash even more intriguing with both agreeing to different weight limits for the bout.
Tickets for the bout are already up for sale on Fanmio as well as pay-per-view, with the price bumping up against as the fight draws near for those purchasing last minute.
However, details on the bout, if it will look like a boxing match, number of rounds and how long each round will be, the size of gloves and other particulars on the fight have not been put out by the organizer, and is left up to the fans to guess what it entails. Will we witness Mayweather annihilate Paul or will Mayweather face unexpected trouble in the ring on June 6? We’ll just have to wait and see how it all unfolds.
