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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.”
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.
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.”
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.”
Canelo Alvarez, who faced Mayweather as a young fighter and suffered his only loss, apparently did not enjoy what he just saw.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Logan Paul went for eight rounds.
There was no decision because it was an exhibition.
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.
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.
The fans in Miami Gardens start booing. They want a knockout, and I don’t think they particularly care who delivers it.
We are going into the eighth, and final round here. The main question left is whether Mayweather, as he did so often in his career, is content with a decision (in a fight with no judges and no planned decision) or whether he will go for the kill.
How many of us actually thought this would last eight rounds?
Say this for Paul: he has surprisingly durable skin. All those connected punches and he’s not even bleeding. Take that, prop bettors.
Jake Paul is sitting ringside and just said that big brother Logan is winning the fight three rounds to two. Uhh, he’s not.
Here’s 190-pound Logan Paul’s problem: he’s the biggest target Floyd Mayweather has ever seen.
Mayweather has never been known as a heavy puncher, but still, Paul is showing a pretty strong chin with some of the shots he has taken.
Some of those punches Mayweather missed on could have been knockout shots.
Mayweather stalking Paul now, and Paul can’t stop it because he can’t land the jab. Paul learning that even old Floyd Mayweather is harder to hit than Jean Pascal is.
Paul looks exhausted. There’s definitely a big conditioning difference.
Both fighters are throwing punches now in the third round. Only one of them is landing. Mayweather whiplashed paul’s head with a lead left hook, and connected with some thudding body shots.
Instead of staying outside of Paul’s range, Mayweather is consistently moving inside of him to completely negate the bigger Paul.
The second round proceeds much like the first, with neither fighter taking a chance by pressing the action.
Have a feeling Mayweather will be more aggressive now. Think he has a feel for the length and timing.
Reach only matters if you can land the jab, and Logan Paul can’t. If you think this fight is boring, you’re right, but it’s what you paid for — a big nonboxer against a small, old boxer.
A cagey first round ends with a flurry, mostly harmless, by Paul. The two fighters are feeling each other out, or perhaps taking it slow to ensure that everybody sees a good show.
The difference between the 6-foot-2 Paul and 5-foot-8 Mayweather is cartoonish. It’s reminiscent of the old K-1 kickbockboxing matches from Japan involving 7-foot-2 Choi Hong-man.
Since boxing divisions are so strictly divided by weight, it is striking to see the massive size difference between Mayweather and Paul.
Both Paul and Mayweather are almost painfully self-aware. Logan Paul walked into the ring to the sounds of a song from the musical film “The Greatest Showman” featuring Zac Efron, while Floyd Mayweather walked in to a live performance by the rapper Moneybagg Yo.
The jet-setter award for tonight goes to Quavo of the Migos, who performed ahead of Floyd Mayweather’s ring walk and earlier today was courtside in Philadelphia rooting on the Atlanta Hawks in their win over the 76ers.
There are supposedly around 25,000 people in attendance at Hard Rock Stadium, but even with Logan Paul walking to the ring they are difficult to hear. It’s not clear if they’ve been quiet all night, or if the crowd audio has been turned down for some reason.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Logan Paul
The meme main event comes to life.
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.
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.
“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.
Masterful performance right there by Jack.
Badou Jack stops Dervin Colina
Colina was badly overmatched, and hit the canvas three times in the fourth round.
There is the third knockdown, with just seconds left in the fourth round. Badou Jack wins.
Badou Jack has now knocked down Dervin Colina twice. If Colina is knocked down again, even if he can get up, the fight is over.
Dervin Colina may be little known, but it has only taken two rounds to confirm that he is overmatched. His path toward victory seems to be limited to catching Badou Jack by surprise with a heavy right hand.
Badou Jack vs. Dervin Colina
Jack (22-3-3) faces Colina (15-0) at light heavyweight in a 10-round bout.
Late replacement Dervin Colina is a near complete mystery. All of his fights have taken place in Venezuela and Colombia, against people we’ve never seen. But his trainer looks familiar. That’s Stacey McKinley, who coached Mike Tyson late in his career.
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.
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.
Luis Arias, the heavy underdog, wins the fight by a split decision. Two judges had him winning 97-93 and 96-93, while the third judge had it 95-94 for Jarrett Hurd.
Luis Arias defeats Jarrett Hurd
An exciting fight ends with an upset for Arias (and gives boxing fans something worth watching tonight).
A pretty even fight, marred by a slippery mat and a questionable knockdown call. Who knows how the judges will decide to score the whole thing.
That’s some suspect refereeing right there. That was clearly a slip in a wet ring. The ref called it a knockdown for some reason, likely earning Hurd an extra point on the scorecards.
The fight is again stopped for rain in the ninth round. The roof appears to extend only about 15 or so feet beyond the ring, which is clearly not enough cover for the wind blowing rain in sideways.
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.
Yes, this card does feature something for serious fight fans, a middleweight bout between former 154-pound champion Jarrett Hurd and Luis Arias, a former protégé of Mayweather’s.
As a junior-middleweight, Hurd was a forward-moving pressure fighter who unified titles by wearing opponents down with his size — he’s 5-foot-11 — and persistence. The formula worked until it didn’t. In May 2019, Julian Williams dropped Hurd, and then won a 12-round decision to take his titles. Sunday night brings Hurd’s second bout since that loss.
Early in his career, Arias was a highly-rated prospect fighting under the Mayweather Promotions banner, but in his last three fights he has a draw and two losses. Arias, who grew up in Milwaukee, recently relocated to Las Vegas, where he trains with famed Cuban coach Ismael Salas, who specializes in revitalizing fighters who have fallen into slumps.
If both fighters perform well, it’s an attractive matchup for serious fans, but could provide enough fireworks for viewers who didn’t tune in for craft.
Chad Johnson can’t box. The 43-year-old retired N.F.L. player fought from a southpaw stance and flashed a fast jab in his exhibition fight against Brian Maxwell, a journeyman fighter with bare-knuckle boxing and mixed martial arts experience. But Johnson looked clueless in exchanges, and often ran from incoming punches.
For three-and-a-half rounds, it didn’t matter. Maxwell, for all his fighting experience, looked clueless fighting under Queensberry Rules, unable to cut off the ring on Johnson, or to sustain much offense. They delivered a bout every bit as slow and sloppy as viewers could expect from two nonboxers.
But in the fourth round, Johnson chose to trade punches — and paid for it. A wild right hook from Maxwell knocked Johnson to the canvas, proving the 33-year-old from Roanoke, Va., was a little less of a novice than his celebrity opponent.
Johnson, who trained with world champions Jermell and Jermall Charlo, gave an honest self-assessment in the ring afterward.
“I fight, but not in the ring,” he said. “So of course it was a little sloppy.”
Then he called out the Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter Conor McGregor.
Jokingly.
We hope.
Mayweather and Paul aren’t the only big names fighting Sunday. Former N.F.L. wide receiver Chad Johnson will make his boxing debut with an exhibition against Brian Maxwell to start the pay-per-view card.
Johnson, 43, played 11 seasons in the N.F.L., being named to the Pro Bowl six times and to the All-Pro list twice. He now co-hosts the “I Am Athlete” podcast weekly with another former N.F.L. receiver, Brandon Marshall (who was in the audience as Johnson weighed in on Saturday).
Johnson told ESPN that he incorporated boxing into his off-season training routine during his N.F.L. career, and he felt confident enough to handle this bout. But he said he anticipates this will be a one-time occurrence.
After 15 months of mostly unexciting matchups without fans, boxing is ready to explode this summer. Here are some of the biggest upcoming fights:
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June 19: Teófimo López will defend his three lightweight world championships against George Kambosos Jr.
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July 17: Jermell Charlo and Brian Castaño will fight for all four middleweight belts, with the winner becoming the first undisputed middleweight champion since Winky Wright in 2004.
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July 24: Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder will complete their trilogy of heavyweight fights, after Fury easily stopped Wilder in the seventh round in 2020.
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August 21: Manny Pacquiao returns to the ring for the first time in two years against Errol Spence Jr., with two welterweight belts on the line.
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August 28: For those more into events featuring YouTube stars, like what’s happening tonight, Logan Paul’s younger brother Jake will take on former mixed martial arts champion Tyron Woodley.
Additionally, a number of other top boxers like Vasyl Lomachenko, Naoya Inoue and Shakur Stevenson all have fights, and an Anthony Joshua versus Oleksandr Usyk bout could be made, too.
There are other combat sporting events beyond boxing, too. The Ultimate Fighting Championship has two title fights on Saturday with Israel Adesanya facing Marvin Vettori for the middleweight title and Deiveson Figueiredo facing Brandon Moreno for the flyweight title. On July 10, Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor headline a lightweight bout in Las Vegas.
The Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Logan Paul exhibition fight is scheduled for Sunday night at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla. The pay-per-view card starts at 8 p.m. Eastern, which you can purchase for $49.99 on Showtime or Fanmio to watch on television or stream through a computer or mobile device.
The announced card for the pay-per-view has four bouts, including the main event between Mayweather and Paul, which will likely happen about midnight Eastern, depending on the previous fights and other entertainment. The other announced bouts are:
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Chad Johnson vs. Brian Maxwell, four-round exhibition
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Jarrett Hurd (24-1) vs. Luis Arias (18-2-1), super welterweights, 10 rounds
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Badou Jack (22-3-3) vs. Dervin Colina (15-0), light heavyweight, 10 rounds
As many as 25,000 fans may watch the fight live, and Leonard Ellerbe, chief executive of Mayweather Promotions, said in the week leading up to the fight that tickets were likely to sell out.
Floyd Mayweather Jr., 44, is viewed as one of the greatest boxers of all time, known for his evasive style and for suffering minimal damage in fights. He turned professional at 19 and needed only two years to win his first title. Notable opponents he has faced include Oscar De La Hoya, Canelo Álvarez and Manny Pacquiao.
Outside the ring, Mayweather frequently flaunts luxury cars, clothes, jewelry and other aspects of a lavish lifestyle built on the wealth he has accumulated as one of the world’s highest-paid athletes. Mayweather, nicknamed “Money,” claims he has made $1.2 billion in his career. In 2012, Mayweather spent two months in prison for assaulting Josie Harris, the mother of three of his four children.
Logan Paul, 26, grew up in Ohio with his brother, Jake, 24, and played football and wrestled in high school. He soon amassed a large following on the video sharing app Vine. His profile rose so dramatically that he dropped out of college to pursue a career as an entertainer, supported by money he had earned through advertisements and paid posts.
His stature transitioned when Vine shut down in 2016 and he instead used Instagram, YouTube and other platforms. He now has over 19 million followers on Instagram and 23 million subscribers on YouTube.
In 2018, Paul drew harsh backlash for posting a video that showed a dead body hanging from a tree in a Japanese forest known as a destination for suicide victims.
Mayweather retired in 2017 after boxing Conor McGregor, the Ultimate Fighting Championship star, and fought a beyond easy exhibition against the Japanese kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa in 2018. But the thought of fighting Paul, whom Mayweather considers easy prey, lured the boxer to a fresh spectacle, thanks to the social media star’s fan base creating the potential for a hefty payday — which Mayweather has likened to “a legalized bank robbery.” (Paul is 0-1 as a professional boxer and has been training for this bout in Puerto Rico in hopes of a better showing.)
At a May news conference at Hard Rock Stadium, things intensified when both men took jabs at the other’s ugly controversies — and in turn, the combatants later spun up vague reflections on their own misdeeds to sell the fight.
Mayweather said he would gladly fight Paul’s brother, Jake Paul, in a double feature on the same night. In recent months, the younger Paul knocked out the former N.B.A. player Nate Robinson and the former U.F.C. fighter Ben Askren.
After the news conference, Jake confronted Mayweather, removing the boxer’s white cap from his head, which led to a crowded brawl with Mayweather and his entourage. Mayweather, visibly upset, said the act was disrespectful. Paul, in a documentary produced by Showtime, sarcastically thanked his brother for “selling his fight.”
Jake Paul recently signed a multifight deal with Showtime and announced his next opponent, the former U.F.C. champion Tyron Woodley.
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