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Floyd Mayweather and Logan Paul aren’t actually going to fight on June 6 in Miami, though the two men will share a boxing ring on that day and charge you a hefty price for the privilege of watching them do whatever it is they will do with gloves on their hands but not really boxing.
No athletic commission would allow them to actually fight. So they won’t, though they’ll put on a show that those working on it say will be “entertainment.”
So I guess that was “entertainment” we saw on Thursday, when Paul’s younger brother, Jake Paul, went nose-to-nose with Mayweather and then swiped the Hall of Famer’s cap following the news conference. That sent Mayweather’s crew angrily chasing Jake Paul to get the cap back for the boss. Mayweather stomped around angrily. Promoter Leonard Ellerbe beamed.
“He told me he was going to do it [and] I told him not to,” Logan Paul told a small group of reporters after the scuffle ended.
There was more contact in that than there will be in their fight, trust that.
Logan Paul: ‘This s*** is so personal now’
This was always going to be like this. Several hundred miles away in Arlington, Texas, Canelo Alvarez had just completed a news conference to promote his Saturday bout on DAZN against Billy Joe Saunders at AT&T Stadium for three of the four major super middleweight belts.
The majority of the American, Mexican and British boxing media were there. Those who weren’t watched Matchroom Sport’s livestream of it.
There was little chance that the Mayweather-Logan Paul news conference would get much play.
Unless.
Unless someone did something stupid that would get everyone talking and draw attention to the fight. And wouldn’t you know it, Jake Paul became rich and famous by doing stupid things and filming them and posting them on YouTube. So who better to do something stupid on Thursday like pretend to try to rile up Mayweather by stealing his cap after going nose-to-nose with him than Jake Paul?
And so, the guy known as “The Problem Child” did the job.
A reporter of course fell for it and asked Logan Paul if it lit a fire under him.
“[Expletive] yeah, bro,” Logan Paul said, suddenly looking indignant. “This s*** is so personal now. This s*** is so [expletive] personal. I thought this shit was going to be kind of cute and we’d go out and put on a show. But it’s going to be a fight, bro. It’s going to be a [expletive] fight, bro. It’s going to be a [expletive] war.”
Uh, no it won’t.
If Mayweather were to really try, he could pitch a shutout against Logan Paul, with his hands behind his back for good measure. As a real fight, it’s a mismatch of epic proportions.
But everyone involves knows it’s not a fight, most importantly Mayweather and Paul.
After the “melee” between Mayweather and his younger brother had ended, Logan Paul turned in the opposite direction and headed not to see if his brother was OK after being tackled by Mayweather’s bodyguards, but he went toward the waiting news cameras.
“Of course I’m still doing press,” Paul said to no one in particular as he made his way back to the reporters.
Of course. Because without doing “press,” the whole point of the charade was lost. So yeah, Logan was going to go talk to the reporters and Jake would leave laughing content in the knowledge that he guaranteed there would be Mayweather-Paul coverage on Thursday beyond just the Miami area.
The card will be filled with legitimate boxing matches, headlined by a light heavyweight rematch between Jean Pascal and Badou Jack, and a middleweight bout between Jarret Hurd and Luis Arias. Both should be entertaining scraps and would make for a better than average Showtime card.
The only other “entertainment” event will be when former NFL wide receiver Chad Johnson will fight an opponent to be named. It will be a pro boxer, but someone with an 0-1 or 0-2 record. It won’t be anyone too serious, and the fight won’t be serious, either.
The Paul brothers’ interest in boxing materialized as a result of their suspicion that they could leverage the fan base they created on YouTube and convince a good percentage of them to buy boxing pay-per-views. And so far, they’ve had some success at it.
Jake Paul has three-quarters of the UFC roster champing at the bit to fight him, so good is he at generating headlines.
Logan Paul is 0-1 and lost to fellow YouTuber KSI. Yet, he’s going to be “fighting” the 50-0 Mayweather, one of the great fighters who ever lived.
Mayweather, of course, is one of the top draws in boxing history and so this could shape up as a financial windfall.
It’s not going to happen, though, if there aren’t some pushes and shoves and harsh words and posturing and snarls.
And, oh yeah: It won’t get much attention if someone doesn’t swipe the star’s cap.
You thought this was bad, though, then went until exhibition week. Then you’ll see the Pauls do something really crazy.
As far as boxing news conference stunts go, this was just the warm-up act.
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