Logan Paul caused a major shock by going the full distance against boxing legend Floyd Mayweather on Sunday night
The retired pound-for-pound great wasn’t able to finish his much larger opponent, but he was crisp throughout the eight-round affair.
It was known heading into the Showtime pay-per-view fight between Floyd Mayweather and Logan Paul that no winner would be announced if the exhibition went the distance.
That likely won’t take anything away from Paul, who can claim something of a moral victory after managing to last all eight rounds with one of the greatest boxers of all time on Sunday night inside Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.
Mayweather was clearly the better fighter, as was expected, but Paul utilised his huge height and weight advantage to lean on Mayweather and avoid taking more than one or two clean shots at a time from the former multi-division world champion.
“I had fun,” Mayweather said after the fight. “You’ve got to realise, I’m not 21 anymore but it’s good to move around with these guys.”
Mayweather was highly cautious early, looking to figure out what Paul brought to the ring and also attempting to avoid taking any clean shots from the YouTube star. Paul entered the ring well over 30 pounds bigger and with a six-inch reach advantage.
After playing almost exclusively defence in the second round, Mayweather finally turned up the offence in the third, opening up with some clean left hooks that rocked Paul’s head back and mixing in the occasional overhand right.
Despite “Money” starting to find space to land clean shots, whenever Mayweather would seem to get his offence on track, Paul would clinch, smother and lean, making Mayweather carry his weight.
“He’s better than I thought he was,” Mayweather said. “As far as with the big guys, the heavyweights? It’s going to be hard. But he’s a tough, rough competitor.”
Paul appeared to fatigue down the stretch, losing what snap he had on his punches to open the contest and pouring sweat as he flicked out jabs that Mayweather was mostly able to easily avoid, while the boxing icon picked spots to land scoring blows.
“I mean, you never know with this guy,” Paul said. “I’m going to go home thinking, ‘Did Floyd let me survive?’ It’s an honour to grace the ring with him. This is the coolest thing ever.”
Mayweather, 44, noted afterwards that he is definitely not going to fight professionally again and “probably” not going to have another exhibition.
“Your kids can’t eat legacy. They can eat off the currency. I believe in building generational wealth. That’s what’s important to me,” Mayweather said.