Henry Marken
So it’s been a couple days since the “fight” between Floyd Mayweather and Logan Paul. I say “fight” because it really was just a well promoted cash grab choreographed into a convincing conflict that was properly stretched to last eight rounds. The writing was on the wall when it was announced that this fight would not rely on post-fight judges to score the event, but rather have the fight in only one of two ways: Win by KO, or draw. Everyone in America licked their chops when this news came out, as everyone believed this notion was just extra fuel to motivate Mayweather to knock the living christ out of Logan Paul. No one, and I mean no one, could have predicted that this fight would end in a draw. But maybe that’s because we held such a high faith for this event and the sport of boxing in general. After all, the sport of boxing is supposed to be the last thing from scripted, with hilarious differences from its distant relative sport, wrestling.
But what we got gives me every reason to believe that this fight was staged harder than some of Bill Shakespeare’s best works. There are videos, sequences, and images that are going viral which look as if Floyd had a clean knockout shot on Paul, but he kept him up with a hug. There were also numerous times that you could tell that the fighters had a policy of when there was any time where an actual KO could take place, they clung to a wrap-up to kill some time. When in doubt, go for the hug.
I was one of those simps that didn’t want to deal with the headache of streaming it via some sketch bootleg site, so I just collected some venmos and bought the damn fight. This notion fused with the fight’s result really hurt, especially because I actually voluntarily paid for it. I mean, it honestly felt like a guy wearing a suit showed up at my doorstep, asked for 50 bucks, held out his hand, and I gave it to him. But that’s not all. On his way off my doorstep he says, “Oh by the way,” as he pulls his pants down and takes a shit on my porch. “You have a great day,” he says while shitting, before he pulls up his slacks, steps in his fresh shit, twists his boot, and leaves. That’s what it felt like.
Using 2020 hindsight, we should have understood that the possibility of a thrown fight was a lot more probable than it should have been. Mayweather is 44 years old and really had no business jumping back into the fighting world especially when he already cemented his name as one of the best pound-for-pound boxers in the sport and made a gazillion dollars in the process. But 100 million dollars isn’t pocket change to anyone, so the idea that a 44 year old could do a couple press tours, threw a few punches, and sweat for 24 minutes to make 100 million makes me believe that there’s probably a lot that goes down in pay per view boxing contracts that I’ll just never fully understand. Perhaps pay per view boxing is just not as an authentic experience as we perceived it to be.
I mean think about it, if you get paid 100 million dollars to make a fight look real, even though there are probably laundry lists of evidence exposing the fight after it takes place… what does it matter to you. You just made 100 million fucking bones. You can afford to deal with some unwanted publicity for a couple days, but I’d say that people won’t be talking about the implications of this fight longer than a week. So yeah, use some of your 100 million and go fly to a desolate vacation spot for a week and when you return, no one will give a shit about the fight. In all honesty, this fight was just so forgettable, the only reason that people are still talking about it was because so many of us feel so negative about it. I was fucking pissed after the fight took place, but I don’t think it will be on my radar next week.
Now, why is all of this bad for boxing? Other than the fact that I’m probably going to gamble with any bootleg streaming service before I buy the next pay per view fight, the antics from the Mayweather vs. Paul fight softens the sport. This fight is a very poor representation of the sport as a whole, and while it acts as a minority as far as the lack of brutality goes, it could unfortunately send the sport into a very “showy” direction.
Televised boxing will always be lucrative cash grab, but now the floodgates of staged boxing might have been opened. If boxing legend Floyd Mayweather can get away with throwing a fight for cash, could you imagine what others would do. How long before washed celebrities try to climb back into the spotlight (and out of whatever financial debt they may be in) and create “beef” with another has-been, all so that they can have a staged fight and make some dough again.
Podcast hosts struggling for listeners, YouTubers scraping for viewers, actors that aren’t respected; the list of potential candidates is endless, and that is not good if you are a true fan of boxing. The new era of boxing. I mean how long before we see Ben Shapiro and Anderson Cooper go “slug it out” and slap each other on pay per view television all so they could promote their own media works and political views.
Don’t get me wrong, there are definitely fights that could be entertaining. Now that I think about it, I may have matchups that could be worth paying for. Stay tuned for the next blog…
