Floyd Mayweather vs. Logan Paul: Live Updates and Analysis
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Key Updates:
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June 6, 2021, 6:41 p.m. ET
Here’s how to watch the fight.
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June 6, 2021, 6:41 p.m. ET
Here’s how both Mayweather and Paul built up their fame.
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June 6, 2021, 6:40 p.m. ET
This bout is an exhibition — with heavily modified rules.
Chad Johnson vs. Brian Maxwell
The exhibition bout is scheduled for four rounds of 2 minutes each.
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.
Who’s up for a Mayweather-Paul prop bet? In the absence of an official result, the folks at BetOnline.ag (which isn’t regulated in the United States) are offering odds on all the places Mayweather might make Paul bleed. Current favorite: a bloody lip.
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.
There will be a stark size difference when the fighters enter the ring. Floyd Mayweather Jr. is 5 feet 8 inches tall and normally fights around 150 pounds. Logan Paul is 6 inches taller and officially weighed 199.4 pounds in his first professional fight. When the fighters weighed in on Saturday, there was a nearly 35-pound difference: Mayweather weighed 155 pounds and Paul weighed 189.5.
The exhibition bout will be eight rounds lasting 3 minutes each with no judges, Florida’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation told ESPN. Stoppages, such as a knockout, will be allowed and determined at the discretion of the referee. Both fighters will wear 10-ounce gloves and no headgear.
The setup has many similarities to what was in place in November when Mike Tyson fought Roy Jones Jr. in California.
The modifications to the rules — and the fact that the event is far more focused on the entertainment than the competition — prompted most sports books based in the United States to not offer wagering on the bout. In the United Kingdom, however, Mayweather is a heavy favorite, and many experts have expressed the view that the fight will go however he wants it to go.