It is confirmed that Floyd Mayweather Jr. will climb the boxing ring anew in 2021 and it's happening on February 20. The undefeated world champion, however, has elected to return via an exhibition bout and he chose YouTube star Logan Paul to be his next opponent.
To be clear, Paul is the brother of Jake Paul, who picked his second boxing win recently by knocking out former NBA star Nate Robinson. Professionally, the younger Paul has the more impressive record and it remains unclear what pushed Mayweather to give the upcoming match his go-ahead.
It might be that Mayweather was convinced that his money-spinner with Paul promises a big punch for the fight to generate the targeted revenue. As a YouTuber, the latter is indeed among the most popular on the platform and over 22 million followers could prove beneficial for the American's comeback fight to gain the most attention possible.
And it helped too that the two celebrities have been ramping up on the publicity area. As BBC reported, Paul and Mayweather have been locked for some time in social media and the two trading insults certainly attracted millions of eyeballs.
It should be curious how the word-war will play out atop the ring and in doing the fight, Mayweather is giving what his millions of fans have been clamoring for. And he gets the bonus of collecting a fat paycheck for a fight that is not expected to last very long.
Mayweather had fought Japanese kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa in December 2018 and the exhibition only ran for over two minutes, ending with the latter's defeat as expected. For his trouble, Mayweather went home some £7 million richer and it's highly likely he'll earn more facing off with Paul.
The expectation is even higher that the multi-division boxing champ will not break a sweat in disposing of his foe. As Boxing News 24 indicated, the Mayweather vs. Paul "is a horrible mismatch."
The YouTuber, for one, is a big question in the arena of boxing. His only claim for a professional fight is with another YouTube star and Paul cannot even brag about the match. It was a losing attempt.
Then there is the concern on Paul's stamina, which certainly Mayweather will take full advantage of. The American is known to flourish on a fight that goes the distance but with Paul, he could opt to maneuver for the internet sensation to tire out quickly and then go for the kill.
In any case, the Mayweather vs. Paul exhibition is pushing ahead and those planning to witness the pay-per-view are advised to make the purchase early. The price is set at $25 for the early birds but the offer will only be until the total buys reach one million, by which time the viewing rights will jump to $40.
Then starting on December 29, the price will increase further at $60, and in the last 10 days heading to the exhibition match, viewers will need to shell out $70. The bout is expected to be staged in the United States.
