Reality is that Mayweather Could End All the Fun

 

Mayweather (l) meets Paul on June 6th.  

Everybody asks me and I tell them that I have no problem with the latest fad in the sport of boxing which has led reality stars to make appearances in real rings.   I opine that if the so-called real fighters were providing customers with real reasons to spend real money to watch them – none of these theatrics would be necessary.

But boxing as it used to be known is gone forever.  The reality is that broadcast programmers, promoters, pacifist state commissions and the omnipotent sanctioning cartels have washed all the grime and violence away, sabotaged the club fights, cast doubt on outcomes and overregulated the sport into oblivion - or what Mike Tyson might call “Bolivian”.

The reality star scene is a new phenomenon.  Led by the twentysomething, lookalike Paul brothers from Ohio, Logan and Jake, who made their bones on YouTube and social media by amassing millions of followers who watch them livestream partying, pranking, stunting and generally being comedically obnoxious. The social influence brothers became stars by selling visceral vicarious voyeurism. In short, the brothers realized that people will pay for a social connection and the hope that if fame happened for Logan and Jake – it could happen for them, too.

Fortune has it that the brothers are somewhat decent athletes. While neophytes to pugilism they seem to have an affinity for boxing and have dedicated themselves to learning the manly pursuit. Their Viking-like physiques, shaggy blonde hair and starry eyes attract the female paying crowd. After three fights, Jake claims to have earned over $20 million from his boxing foray and after years spent on the YouTube and social media circuit, they understand the art of shameless, self-promotion better than anyone around these parts since Don King.  

Social influence brothers Logan (l) and Jake Paul.

Enter Floyd Mayweather, Jr.  At age 44 with a professional boxing record of 50-0 and arguably the most dominant boxer of the past 20 years, Mayweather sees only dollar signs.  “Money” as he is known, claims to have earned $1 billion dollars over the course of his boxing career and by many accounts he may also have spent the same amount.  An itinerant semi-retiree with a steadfast aversion to frugality, Mayweather saw only dollar signs when he learned that real money could made from fighting a reality star in what serves as a boxing match these days.

And so it is that Mayweather will meet 26 year-old Logan Paul this weekend in an exhibition bout in Miami, Florida.  While the retirement since 2017 is not technically over with, Mayweather will need to get his older self into a semblance of condition to meet the motivated Paul who will outweigh him by about 30 pounds, is half a foot taller and 18 years younger – albeit with one pro fight – a loss in November 2019. 

 

Logan Paul is a novice with only one professional bout under his belt.

But the overall feeling is that Mayweather doesn’t belong here.  Aside from the fact he is a grandfather, with five children of his own, and by his own proclamations (not his accountants) a practical billionaire, Mayweather embarked upon his professional boxing career a year after Logan Paul was born.  Some argue Mayweather is the most accomplished boxer of this new century and because his record is 50-0 that he is the best ever.  Certainly he is a first ballot hall of famer.  But this whole thing could best be described as a race between Secretariat and a donkey at a petting zoo, fun to watch to see what the donkey might do, but not a real contest. Truth be told,   Mayweather has forgotten more about boxing than Logan Paul will ever know.

Last month, Logan’s brother, Jake, showed up at the press conference to announce this event and engaged in a fiery face-off and exchange of words with his older brother’s foe and grabbed a ball hat from Mayweather’s head and with impeccable comedic timing yelled, “Gotcha hat!”  This schoolyard action was enough to send the ill-tempered Mayweather into a frothing rage and cameras actually captured him uttering death threats while screaming that he had been “disrespected!” 

It’s unclear as to whether Mayweather ever eventually retrieved his cap, but the next day Jake had a tattoo imprinted upon his leg with an image of a small hat with the words “gotcha hat”.  Of course the tattooing was broadcast around the world on social media platforms by a giggling, sandwich eating Jake. Hours later, T-shirts, hats and hoodies were available for sale with the words “gotcha hat” on a website owned and operated by him. Mayweather had been totally upstaged by a kid.  In this new realm in this new era, Mayweather had been outfoxed and for the first time, outplayed.  Former Mayweather foe Conor McGregor described the entire situation for what is was – ”It’s embarrassing!”

The larger issue, however, is that Mayweather will likely bring an abrupt end to this entire reality star versus real life boxing experiment.  Seemingly angry since birth, Mayweather is approaching this fight with the same venom and hatred he has exhibited for most of his life in the spotlight. Should he make short work of Paul and knock him out or completely befuddle him, then the entire idea of reality versus real life will be completely sabotaged and nobody will want to pay for similar events in the future. There’s a real chance here that Mayweather brings all of this fun to an end which puts boxing back to reality which is really no fun at all – and the reason why all of this started to begin with.   

June 1, 2021