The Day After Debate: Did Mayweather Want To Stop Logan Paul, Or Not?

If you missed it, you can watch the Floyd Mayweather v Logan Paul exhibition fight on Saturday, on Showtime.

The amount of folks who will want to see it six days later will be lessened, maybe, because the word is out:

The match wasn’t scintillating, and it went the whole eight rounds, there was no cherry-on-top KO to give the people what they wanted, and send ’em home happy.

Maybe Mayweather (in above photo with Logan after the bout ended, photo by Sean M Ham) implied that fans wouldn’t get what they wanted when he called this contest “legalized bank robbery.” I thought that Floyd meant it would be such easy work that he’d have his way with the guy and blow him out. Nope. It looked to me like he tried sporadically to dial in, load up and deliver power shots to stop Logan, but the 200 pounder showed a solid chin, and his torso held up from a few body shots. The older Paul brother also was able to slip a few load-up left hooks from Floyd. Perhaps Floyd knew he’d not go all out for the stop, and that the absence of a KO would be what folks saw as a “robbery” after the fact.

Maybe your antennae should’ve pricked up when you heard Floyd say in a BetOnline.ag video,”This fight will not go the distance, I promise. Bet on it…Will Logan Paul hit the canvas? Absolutely, bet all of your money on it.”

Impossible to say with certainty only he knows for sure. But his declaration that you should ‘bet all of your money on it’ now, looking back, looks shady as all hell. Because you know one or two or ten or 1,000 people got swayed by his lobbying and in fact bet more than they should have, and have crumbs in pockets today.

This event will spur chatter a day or two or more after it concluded, that’s clear.  I reached out to Matt Andrzejewski, who does the “Boxing Betting” column for NY Fights, because he’s tasked with trying to determine all the possible scenarios in a fight, to help him figure out what plays to make at the bookmaker window.

“I personally don’t think Mayweather wanted to go the distance,” Andrzejewski told me when I asked for his day after take. “I do strongly believe though that he wanted this fight to go some rounds.

“This fight eerily resembled the McGregor fight,” he said.

“I think Floyd intentionally held back early as he was concerned if he let his hands fly that he’d crack Paul’s chin and end things early. Yes, fans wanted a knockout but not in a quick, non-competitive fight. So Mayweather allowed Paul to do what he wanted early and put on a somewhat of a show.

“Also let’s not forget his Japan exhibition with Tenshin Nasukawa,” Andrzejewski said.

“This fight was not broadcast by any US outlet. Mayweather received a hefty chunk of change but nowhere near reportedly what he made for this fight with Paul, the McGregor fight, the Pacman fight or anyone of his Showtime contracted fights for that matter. Mayweather didn’t care about dragging things out in Japan. He stepped in the ring and dispatched of Nasukawa almost instantly.

“I do think Mayweather thought as soon as he unleashed anything Paul would crumble. And he tried in the second half of the fight. Maybe it was Paul’s size that allowed him to stand up to Mayweather’s best. Or maybe Mayweather was just not himself. It could have been age. It could have been lack of training. Not saying he didn’t train but does anyone believe that this Mayweather was as peak physically as say he was five to seven years ago (or put as much effort into his training camp)?”

Good points from Matt….

Another tell, to me, as far as what the desired result was, and that a distance fight wasn’t the plan came when Floyd spoke at the post-fight presser.

Mayweather repeated again and again how much fun he had, but the topics he touched on said different. At one point, he told assembled media in Miami that had he wanted to, he could have opened up, and stopped the guy. He also showed that his ego got nicked by being unable to stop Logan, maybe, when he declared time and again how much Logan held him. He was making excuses, which was bizarre, for the guy who will tell you he’s the Greatest of All Time.

I don’t think this moves the needle much down the line for people debating his worth as an all-time great, but it does re-prove there’s still a market to see what Floyd is up to. The post-fight presser did 2.3 million views on YouTube as of Monday afternoon.

Touch base with Michael Woods through LinkedIn, if you like