Floyd Mayweather vs. Logan Paul Ends Without a Knockout (Published 2021) (2024)

June 7, 2021, 12:34 a.m. ET

Morgan Campbell

Disappointed in the bout? Blame your expectations.

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In the seventh round of his pay-per-view exhibition against Floyd Mayweather, social media star-turned boxer Logan Paul stared the older man down and took a deep, exhausted breath. Then the 26-year-old part-time fighter, 18 years younger and nearly 35 pounds heavier than Mayweather, lurched forward to launch an attack.

Mayweather, who retired undefeated in 2017, whacked Paul with a left hook. The punch wasn’t hard by pro boxing standards, but it was hard enough to get Paul’s attention without wobbling him. By the final bell, after Round 8, the crowd at Hard Rock Stadium booed the two combatants. Like that seventh-round left hook, the fight got their attention but didn’t deliver anything bigger.

But anybody disappointed with the lack of action, or a clean knockout blow, should blame their expectations.

Sunday’s main event pitted Paul, big and young, but not a pro boxer, against Mayweather, a small man in his mid-40s, but a master of the craft. The disparities in age and size made the matchup interesting, but the other details promised awkwardness.

To the extent that the bout featured clean punches, Mayweather landed them. Paul possessed a reach advantage but couldn’t land his jab. He towered over the 5-foot-8 Mayweather, but spent much of the fight retreating. When Mayweather would sting him with punches, usually heavy body blows or left hooks to the head, Paul would wrap his arms around Mayweather or lean on the older man’s shoulders.

For Paul, who is still 0-1 in sanctioned matches, simply reaching the end of Sunday’s exhibition counted as a victory.

“This is the coolest thing ever,” he said. “I’m happy I made it out.”

Afterward Mayweather said he was satisfied, but his demeanor hinted at disappointment over his performance, and at finally feeling his age.

“I’m not 21 anymore,” he said. “But it’s good to move around with these young guys.”

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June 7, 2021, 12:19 a.m. ET

Kevin Draper

Mayweather called this a ‘legalized bank robbery.’ Who knows how big the heist was.

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Both fighters assuredly took home millions of dollars from Sunday night’s fight, but exactly how many millions of dollars is unknown.

Official purse figures are usually made public by the sanctioning commission, in this case the Florida State Boxing Commission, but since this was an exhibition there are no official figures. Neither fighter nor their representatives have specified how much they are contracted to make, and no credible boxing reporter has reported the numbers.

One website has written, without citing any sources, that Mayweather was guaranteed $10 million and 50 percent of the pay-per-view buys, while Paul was guaranteed $250,000 and 10 percent of the pay-per-view buys. A number of other news websites have repeated those numbers, also without citing any sources.

Mayweather said in March that he could make $100 million or more from the fight, while Paul has said he could make $20 million, but those numbers should probably be taken with a grain of salt.

In a typical fight, pay-per-view revenue is divided roughly evenly. The fighters combined receive about half, while cable and satellite operators and Showtime split the other half. If that split holds for this fight, at a $49.99 price, about 4.8 million would have to buy for Mayweather and Paul to earn $120 million combined from pay-per-view revenue. Considering only one fight in the history of boxing has ever approached those numbers, it seems quite unlikely.

Pay-per-view money is not the only source of revenue from the fight, however. Somewhere around 25,000 people were expected to buy tickets to attend in person, and each fighter certainly earned sponsorship and other revenue from the fight.

The moral of the story? Both Mayweather and Paul are doing just fine.

June 6, 2021, 11:53 p.m. ET

Emmanuel Morgan

Mayweather and Paul go the distance, to the delight of few in attendance.

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It didn’t end in a knockout, but the outcome was as expected. Floyd Mayweather Jr., the greatest boxer of this generation, exerted little energy in an exhibition bout against Logan Paul, a social media star with essentially no experience, earning millions of dollars in the process.

Mayweather boxed against Paul for eight rounds in a rainy Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla., in an unofficial bout that would never have been a threat to Mayweather’s spotless professional record. No winner was announced because there were no judges in the special event. But the fans craved a knockout, and began booing toward the end of the final round.

Paul, who stands 6 inches taller and weighed in 34½ pounds heavier than Mayweather, exerted his weight on Mayweather throughout the fight, hugging and leaning his bigger frame against the boxer’s body.

“He’s better than I thought he was,” Mayweather said in the ring after the fight. “I was surprised by him tonight. He knew how to use his weight and he tied me up tonight.”

Trading blows in round 4 💥👀 #MayweatherPaul pic.twitter.com/jrAn0Vzo9R
— ATS Boxing (@atsboxing) June 7, 2021

It was a change in tone for Mayweather, who in the lead-up to the fight likened the contest to a “legalized bank robbery.” Mayweather has been known for using an evasive style rather than relying on knockout power.

“It’s an honor to grace the ring with him, this is the coolest thing ever,” Paul said after the fight. “I’m glad I made it out. He’s old but he’s tough to hit.”

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June 6, 2021, 11:43 p.m. ET

Kevin Draper

Canelo Alvarez, who faced Mayweather as a young fighter and suffered his only loss, apparently did not enjoy what he just saw.

🤦🏼‍♂️
— Canelo Alvarez (@Canelo) June 7, 2021

RESULT

Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Logan Paul went for eight rounds.

There was no decision because it was an exhibition.

June 6, 2021, 11:35 p.m. ET

Morgan Campbell

Fans boo at the final bell, because.... who knows? If they wanted to see high-level boxing, Luis Arias and Jarrett Hurd delivered it two fights ago.

June 6, 2021, 11:34 p.m. ET

Kevin Draper

Of course the fight ends without either fighter hitting the canvas; we have seen enough Mayweather fights over the years. Both Mayweather and Paul can go back to their respective fanbases and claim victory, actual or moral.

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Here’s why both Mayweather and Paul are often considered controversial.

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Both Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Logan Paul have been described as “controversial” in the run-up to their fight, and the word will likely make an appearance on the telecast tonight, so it is worth being specific about the troubles the fighters have faced in the past — which they have each used to promote this fight.

Mayweather has been convicted of domestic abuse charges three times. He pleaded guilty to battery against the mother of one of his children in 2002 and received a suspended sentence. He was found guilty of two counts of battery against two women he hit in a casino in 2004 and received another suspended sentence, though the guilty verdict was later vacated. In 2012, he served two months of a three month prison sentence after accepting a plea deal for reduced charges of domestic violence and harassment after he beat the mother of three of his children, Josie Harris.

According to the arrest report for the last incident, Mayweather grabbed Harris’s hair and punched her in the back of the head several times. Harris later told Yahoo that she believed Mayweather purposefully punched her there because the bruises wouldn’t show. Harris died last year of an accidental drug overdose, according to the Los Angeles County medical examiner.

Paul has never been convicted of a crime, and most of his controversies have to do with what he films and uploads to his YouTube channel. In early 2018, Paul apologized after receiving heavy criticism for filming a video in a Japanese forest known as a destination for people to kill themselves, including showing a dead body and his reaction to it.

YouTube removed Paul from its preferred ad program and later temporarily suspended advertising on his channel for what it said was “egregious” behavior. He has generated a number of other, smaller, firestorms, mostly stemming from his videos and its bro humor, pranks and antics.

Mayweather and Paul raised the controversies while verbally sparring in front of reporters at a news conference last month to drum up interest for the fight.

“I know what he did to the country of Japan. I know what he did to Japan. So guess what? You’re going to have to pay for what you did to Japan.”

“Is this you trying to rally an entire country around you?” Paul responded.

Mayweather began to talk again, and Paul immediately interjected: “Well I know what you did to your wife.” He added: “He beat his wife, too.”

“He’s entitled to feel how he want to feel, say what he want to say,” Mayweather responded. “My thing is this: you have to always have proof. We can never go by hearsay, always have proof.”

After the news conference, the fighters vaguely referenced their own troubles in a Showtime special that covered the run-up to the fight.

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June 6, 2021, 10:31 p.m. ET

Morgan Campbell

Badou Jack stopped Dervin Colina in the fourth round.

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Dervin Colina came to fight.

The 33-year-old Venezuelan landed a hard right hand to Badou Jack’s face at the end of the first round of their light-heavyweight bout. Jack, who was originally scheduled to face Jean Pascal, and who has won world titles in two weight classes, barely blinked.

But Colina, a late replacement for Pascal, who was scratched from Sunday’s card after a positive drug test, couldn’t do much with a world-class operator like Jack, who stalked him from the opening bell.

Early in the fourth, Jack dropped Colina with a straight right hand to the head, and then floored him again minutes later with a right hand to the rib cage. Colina climbed back to his feet and kept fighting, even tagging Jack with a right uppercut, but the veteran pro overwhelmed him. One more right hand to the body sent Colina back to the canvas, and, because it was the third knockdown in the round, it triggered an automatic, merciful stoppage.

.@BadouJack stops Colina with his 3rd knockdown in round 4 💥👀 #JackColina #MayweatherPaul pic.twitter.com/eVLhKTR9G3
— ATS Boxing (@atsboxing) June 7, 2021

“I’m a way better boxer than him,” Jack said in the ring afterward. “Outbox him, and everything else will come.”

Colina, fighting in the United States for the first time, is now 15-1. Jack’s record improves to 24-3-3. He said after the fight that he plans to move up to cruiserweight, with its 200-pound limit.

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June 6, 2021, 10:00 p.m. ET

Morgan Campbell

A doping test results in a substitution.

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This card’s co-feature was supposed to be a world title rematch between veteran light heavyweights Badou Jack, the challenger, and Jean Pascal, the World Boxing Association champion. On a video conference call in mid-May, the 38-year-old Pascal dressed in a tank top that revealed a larger, leaner and more muscular physique. When asked what training adjustments helped sculpt him, Pascal cited consistency and an early start to his diet.

He didn’t mention getting help from four banned substances, three steroids plus the blood-boosting hormone E.P.O. Those all showed up in a prefight blood test, and got Pascal scratched from the rematch with Jack, a former world champion in two divisions.

Rather than scuttle the fight completely, promoters found a new, short-notice opponent, a Miami-based Venezuelan named Dervin Colina. The 33-year-old is undefeated, but all of his 15 previous bouts have taken place in Colombia or Venezuela, the majority against local journeymen.

The late change in opponents won’t affect interest in the main event, but may turn off avid boxing fans who might have tuned in to watch a closely-matched title fight.

Pascal, for his part, has fired his strength and conditioning coach.

June 6, 2021, 9:57 p.m. ET

Morgan Campbell

Luis Arias won a split decision in an exciting bout.

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Before the eighth round of Luis Arias’s middleweight bout against Jarrett Hurd, trainer Ismael Salas told his fighter the key to sealing a victory against a bigger, stronger opponent.

Don’t back up. At all.

Arias, a 30-year-old former prospect who entered Sunday on a three-fight winless streak, had already followed that blueprint, tattooing Hurd with overhand rights and left hooks to the body in the early rounds. Hurd, a former super-welterweight champion, didn’t necessarily mind the bout unfolding that way early. He built a reputation and a résumé winning by attrition, taking punishment early and overwhelming tired opponents late, and Hurd surged in the middle rounds by moving forward.

But he also spent long stretches trying to box tactically, while Arias potshotted him with overhand rights. The final three rounds, the smaller Arias moved forward more than he retreated, outworking Hurd, and winning a split decision. One judge had Arias winning seven rounds, and another had him winning six. A third judge gave five rounds to Hurd, but awarded Hurd an extra point when Arias went down on a rain-slicked ring and the referee scored it a knockdown.

Arias improves his record to 19-2-1. Hurd is now 24-2.

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June 6, 2021, 9:29 p.m. ET

Kevin Draper

Streaming problems? You’re not alone.

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It is a big pay-per-view event, which means people are complaining that their stream is going down.

The event can be bought through Showtime, a number of cable and satellite providers, and the Fanmio Boxing app on internet-connected televisions, but a number of those distribution channels seem to be having problems.

Showtime’s official support Twitter account acknowledged an unspecified problem with its apps:

Fanmio has not officially acknowledged any problems with its apps, but a number of people on Twitter are complaining to the company that they can’t get the event to show. The intrepid author of this blog item has not complained on Twitter, but he had to restart his television after the Fanmio app did not work for a few minutes.

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