In an era which has seen the resurgence of boxing popularity and elite fighters with household appeal, we have also seen the rise of casual public interest in the sport in another form: celebrity YouTube fights.
Floyd Mayweather, the consummate businessman and entertainer, saw an avenue of revenue and entertainment in the form of THE celebrity exhibition bout to end all celebrity exhibition bouts (although, we have certainly not seen the end of these) against the ultra popular YouTube star, Logan Paul.
The interest generated was almost solely around the spectacle of the event, but the interest of the bout certainly centralized around how and when Floyd “Money” Mayweather would decide to defeat the amateur fighter along with a chance for fight fans who dislike the Paul’s to see one brother (probably the wrong one) taught a lesson. That lesson never seemed to come.
Floyd was certainly willing to let the first round go by without too much action, even shelling up while allowing Paul to let off a flurry of punches that landed on Mayweather’s arms. Through the second, it was clear Floyd was content letting Paul miss punches and tire himself before deciding to cut the distance in the third round and further wear down Paul.
Paul looked nearly spent from the fourth round on, but fought to the final bell despite eating a handful of good shots from Mayweather.
The fight was uneventful and mostly uninteresting with Floyd having success when he decided to engage and when Paul wasn’t holding (neither of which happened often). Paul did effectively use the clinch to survive and evade possible onslaughts throughout the fight, much to the chagrin of viewers world wide.
However, as they say, if it makes dollars, it makes sense, and the spectacle certainly generated plenty of that. To Logan Paul’s credit, size and youth advantage be dammed, he was willing to step in the ring with the generations greatest boxer in his own arena of expertise and fight hard. Paul had every intention on winning, and went the distance with “The Best Ever.”
Ultimately, it was a clear pay day for each man, unwilling to risk more than was necessary and be content with what was likely a huge amount of money earned by each.
Thank god this card had the Jarrett Hurd vs. Luis Arias bout to provide some action that was otherwise absent from the evening. Following that fight, it may be more difficult to make an event like this in the future… let’s hope so.
