YouTube star Logan Paul is expected to fight boxing legend Floyd Mayweather on June 6, 2021 at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida. The fight has been brewing since Logan Paul first talked about the anticipated matchup on his podcast Impaulsive. Originally set for February of 2021 as a headliner fight, the match was postponed in late January. This week, both Paul and Mayweather took to Instagram and Twitter to announce that the fight is officially set for June 6, 2021.
Mayweather maintains an astonishing record of 50-0 in his boxing career that lasted from 1996 until 2015, with an additional fight taking place in 2017. He also maintains a record of 27 knockouts. Paul has only been fighting since 2018 and has competed in two professional cards. In his first match against fellow YouTuber KSI in 2018, it ended in a draw. During a rematch in 2019, it resulted in a loss by split decision, making his record only 0-1-1. With a YouTube star challenging arguably the greatest defensive boxer of all time, no matter the outcome of the fight, it is going to involve a lot of heated exchanges and publicity.
Mayweather's Boxing Career
Mayweather has been considered one of the sports best defensive fighters of all time. His technique has been so significantly strong that he has yet to lose a fight throughout his entire career. His debut came in October of 1996 when he fought Roberto Apodaca in Las Vegas. He won the fight via knockout in the second round. From there, Floyd quickly continued to excel after his debut, culminating in Mayweather earning the World Boxing Council Super Featherweight Title in 1998 in a fight against title defender Angel Manfredy. In 1999, he continued to uphold his reputation, taking down three challenges to the title.
In 2005, he won the WBC light welterweight title in a match against Arturo Gatti with a knockout in the sixth round. The following year, he won both the WBC and the International Boxing Council welterweight titles. Then in 2015, his fighting career culminated when he announced a fight against Manny Pacquiao. The match-up quickly become one of the most anticipated of his career with many years required to set it up. After taking the win and completing all twelve rounds, he took a year off and returned to fighting in 2017. That year, he fought MMA champion Connor McGregor whom he defeated by technical knockout in the tenth round. After the win, Mayweather announced his retirement from boxing, that is, until the recent announcement of his fight with Logan Paul.
Paul's Entrance Into Fighting
Logan Paul started his career as a YouTuber in Ohio, posting videos to the Zoosh channel when he was only 10. He competed in both football and wrestling while in high school and competed in several Division I championships. He then briefly attended Ohio University but dropped out due to his success on the platforms of Vine and YouTube. He quickly emerged as a rising star, appearing on television shows, advertisement campaigns for a variety of companies, and on other celebrity YouTube and Vine channels like The Rock.
He entered his first major controversy in 2017 when he shared a video on YouTube featuring a trip into the Japanese suicide forest which resulted in backlash. In an attempt to resolve the situation, he donated over $1 million to suicide prevention agencies in an attempt to reconcile his poor decisions. In 2018, the controversy continued when YouTube decided to demonetize his videos due to erratic behavior. The social star then took to Twitch where he live-streamed a variety of content.
That same year, Paul started his fighting career with his debut being a match against KSI, a fellow YouTube personality. He continued to pursue a career in fighting and in December of 2020, announced his fight with Floyd Mayweather. The battle seems to be an ambitious goal, with Paul having yet to win a fight and Mayweather remaining undefeated. But Logan wasn't the only member of the Paul family to enter the fighting culture either. His brother, fellow YouTube personality Jake Paul also started a fighting career. Jake boasts a much stronger record than his brother, including a 3-0 winning streak. He has competed in some major fighting events including against former UFC fighter Ben Askren, whom he defeated by knockout in the first round.
The Financial Incentives
While the official records of both fighters are on opposite sides of the spectrum, one motive to keep the fight going and to get Floyd Mayweather to agree was the strong financial incentive. It's been reported that Floyd Mayweather is expected to earn around $100 million for the fight. In comparison, Mayweather said that fighting another professional would result in only $35 million, making the $65 million difference a big factor in his agreement.
The Pay Per View set up to watch the fight is going to be directed through the sports streaming platform Fanmio, which is expected to charge $49.99 for the fight. Pay Per View has been an exciting incentive for several fighters. In 2018, the UFC featured a title card that included Connor McGregor against Khabib Nurmagomedov which resulted in a UFC record of 2.4 million buyers. If Paul and Mayweather could acquire the same number of buyers for their fight, it would result in a revenue of more than $120 million, making the match one of the most financially lucrative in the sports history. When looking at the highest earning Pay Per View fights, Mayweather already holds the top two spots, making this new challenge a contender for the biggest Pay Per View event in boxing history.
Sources:MSN, MMAJunkie, Extra, NYPost, CinemaBlend, DailyMail, LiveAbout, Fite, Insider, Distractify, HuffPost, Yahoo, SportsKeeda, ESPN, Independent, BleacherReport, EssentiallySports