Notebook: Floyd Mayweather to face Logan Paul in rescheduled exhibition bout
Mayer's first defense; Edwards title shot; Triller lawsuit; more
The exhibition bout between legendary five-division world champion Floyd Mayweather and popular YouTube personality and novice boxer Logan Paul has been rescheduled.
Mayweather and Paul both announced the bout on their social media feeds on Tuesday with the bout scheduled for June 6 — a Sunday — at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami.
“Mayweather Promotions, Fanmio and Showtime have come together to bring an epic Event,” Mayweather posted.
Paul’s announcement said they “have come together to make boxing history!!!”
That’s obviously laying it on a bit thick but they will indeed meet in a bout that was announced in December with a date of Feb. 20 but postponed without explanation on Feb. 3, although the inability to have a ticket-buying crowd in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic was a major issue.
Initially, the bout was going to be offered as streaming pay-per-view on the Fanmio website. Fanmio specializes in selling “personal online meet and greets” with celebrities. Now, Showtime, which was Mayweather’s broadcast home for his final seven official bouts, all massively lucrative pay-per-views, will also be involved and presumably offer the event as a traditional pay-per-view.
According to sources, the undercard is due to include secondary light heavyweight titlist Jean Pascal in a rematch with Badou Jack and former unified junior middleweight titlist Jarrett Hurd against Luis Arias.
A rematch between Pascal (35-6-1, 20 KOs), 38, of Montreal, and Jack (23-3-3, 13 KOs), 37, of Las Vegas, has been expected for months. Pascal has not fought since winning a split decision over Jack on Dec. 28, 28, 2019 in Atlanta in a fight in which both men were knocked down. Jack has boxed once since that loss, winning a shutout eight-round decision over Blake McKernan in November on the undercard of the Mike Tyson-Roy Jones Jr. exhibition.
Hurd (24-1, 16 KOs), 30, of Accokeek, Maryland, has not fought since winning a 10-round decision over Francisco Santana in January 2020. In his previous fight, Hurd lost his unified 154-pound title by upset decision in front of a home region crowd to Julian Williams.
Arias (18-2-1, 9 KOs), 30, a Milwaukee native, is 0-2-1 in his last three fights, with decision losses to Daniel Jacobs in 2017 and Luke Keeler in 2019 and a draw against Gabriel Rosado in 2018.
The specifics of the broadcast, including the price, have not yet been announced nor have the rules of the main event contest, the number of rounds or the weight specifics, which are significant because the 5-foot-8 Mayweather (50-0, 27 KOs), 44, of Las Vegas, and the 6-2 Paul (0-1), 26, of Los Angeles, are separated by about 50 pounds.
Although there have been published reports citing the weight rules, a source involved in the event told Fight Freaks Unite they were inaccurate.
Mayweather fought his last fight in August 2017 at 149 pounds when he knocked out UFC star Conor McGregor in the 10th round of an official boxing match and has never been heavier than 151 pounds for a fight.
More than a year after retiring after knocking out McGregor, Mayweather traveled to Saitama, Japan, for a much-hyped three-round boxing exhibition bout against undefeated Japanese kickboxer and MMA fighter Tenshin Nasukawa, a much smaller man. The exhibition was contracted at 147 pounds and they met on Dec. 31, 2018. Mayweather, who made around $8 million, knocked out Nasukawa in the first round of a farcical mismatch.
Paul, the older brother of Jake Paul, another YouTube personality, who is 3-0 as a professional cruiserweight, made his pro boxing debut in November 2019 and lost a six-round split decision to fellow YouTube star “KSI” Olajide William Olatunji weighing 199 pounds.
FITE In Focus
With the Andy Ruiz Jr.-Chris Arreola heavyweight fight headlining the Premier Boxing Champions Fox Sports PPV on Saturday (9 p.m. ET), I joined my friends at FITE, the home for those who want to buy the pay-per-view and stream it, for a roundtable discussion previewing the card. You can watch the show here:
My other articles
I’ve had a busy couple of days writing four news stories for BoxingScene:
There are clearly issues in finalizing the site deal for the Tyson Fury-Anthony Joshua undisputed heavyweight title fight eyed for late July or early August in Saudi Arabia. Top Rank chairman Bob Arum sounded awfully pessimistic about Joshua promoter Eddie Hearn’s ability to deliver the supposed $150 million site deal, so much to the point that Arum suggested that Fury may wind up facing Deontay Wilder in a third fight next rather than Joshua. Please read that blockbuster story here: https://www.boxingscene.com/arum-frustrated-hearn-radio-silent-on-fury-joshua-site-deal-fury-fight-wilder-next--157204
Newly crowned WBC junior lightweight world champion Oscar Valdez’s first title defense is likely to come against amateur nemesis Robson Conceicao in August or September. You can read that story here: https://www.boxingscene.com/oscar-valdez-vs-robson-conceicao-likely-august-september--157206
Fresh off his action-packed 12th-round knockout of Christopher Diaz on Saturday night to retain the WBO featherweight title, Emanuel Navarrete’s second title defense is already in the works and likely to come against mandatory challenger Joet Gonzalez with late August or September penciled in. I talked to both camps and you can ready that story here: https://www.boxingscene.com/emanuel-navarrete-vs-joet-gonzalez-showdown-works--157207
Top Rank has decided that unbeaten up-and-comer Julian “Hammer Hands” Rodriguez is ready to step up in competition. So, he will face the stiffest test of his career when he squares off with former two-division world titleholder Jose “Sniper” Pedraza in a 10-round junior welterweight bout on Top Rank’s June 12 card headlined by Shakur Stevenson-Jeremiah Nakathila. Please check that story out here: https://www.boxingscene.com/jose-pedraza-julian-rodriguez-meet-stevenson-nakathila-co-feature-june-12--157224
Mayer to make first defense
Mikaela Mayer (14-0, 5 KOs), 30, of Los Angeles, will make the first defense of her WBO junior lightweight title against Erica Farias (26-4, 10 KOs), 36, of Argentina, on June 19 at the Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas, a source with knowledge of the match told Fight Freaks Unite.
The bout will be the co-feature of the Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card due to be headlined unified bantamweight world champion Naoya Inoue’s mandatory defense against Michael Dasmarinas in a fight that also has not yet been formally announced.
Mayer claimed the vacant title by near-shutout decision against Ewa Brodnicka on Inoue’s last undercard on Oct. 31 inside the bubble of the conference center at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Brodnicka had been stripped of the belt for missing weight so only Mayer was eligible to win the vacant title.
Farias has been idle since losing a decision challenging then-unified women’s junior welterweight titlist Jessica McCaskill in a rematch in October 2019. Farias has dropped three of her last five fights with each loss coming in a world title bout — two to McCaskill and one to then-undisputed welterweight champion Cecilia Braekhus in 2017.
Edwards aims for upset
Sunny Edwards claimed that he is happy to be the underdog when he challenges IBF flyweight world titlist Moruti Mthalane on Friday (ESPN+ in U.S., BT Sport in U.K., 2 p.m. ET) in London in the main event of a card that also includes Michael Conlan (14-0, 8 KOs), 29, of Northern Ireland, moving down from featherweight to junior featherweight to face Ionut Baluta (14-2, 3 KOs), 27, of Romania, in a 12-rounder.
“I am pretty happy to be considered the underdog. They have been on a great run recently and especially since boxing went behind closed doors,” Edwards said, noting that there have been some recent upsets, including Teofimo Lopez lifting the unified lightweight title from Vasiliy Lomachenko and Mauricio Lara shocking Josh Warrington. “It is a trend I am confident of continuing and when I get the belt it will be in safe keeping with (pet dogs) Kilo and Duchess protecting the crown jewels. I might have to ask the IBF about sanctioning some world champion dog collars if it all goes my way.”
Edwards (15-0, 4 KOs), 25, of England, has fought his last two bouts at junior bantamweight, but he returns to flyweight for the title shot he has wanted against South Africa’s Mthalane (39-2, 26 KOs), 38, who will be making the fourth defense of his second title reign. He has fought around the world and not lost since then-flyweight titlist Nonito Donaire stopped him in a 2008 title bout in Las Vegas.
Edwards will be challenging a man he is friendly with and has trained with at a camp in Ukraine.
“It is a friendly (relationship) since we were together in Ukraine and we have got each other on social media, so it has always been a ‘good luck’ or ‘well done’ before and after fights. He is top of the division, top of the tree and he is where everybody else wants to be. He is heavily avoided, we know that. I think he's had like 10 world title fights and nobody has ever given him a unification shot. He has proved time and time again he will be the away fighter, even as a world champion. I think you have to understand the beast I am getting in the ring with, to be honest. I do.
“When I got out of the ring in Ukraine he said I would 100 percent be a world champion when I asked him for a picture. Hopefully that 100 percent will be on (Friday) and against him, but he is such a nice man and a great champion. I do genuinely feel honored to be sharing a ring with him, but all the friendliness will fall by the wayside when that first bell goes.”
Triller piracy lawsuit
Triller Fight Club announced that it has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court of Central California pertaining to alleged piracy of its Jake Paul-Ben Askren pay-per-view event held at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on April 17. The lawsuit seeks $100 million in damages from 12 websites and at least 100 individuals it claims stole the signal of the $49.99 PPV and resold it at a lower price.
“It's shocking to think a theft so grand can be done so blatantly and brazenly and with no remorse,” Triller chief Ryan Kavanaugh said in a statement. “There is zero difference between what they did and walking into a market stealing tons of a product and selling it at a discount in the parking lot. It’s neither civilly nor criminally any different, and we are prosecuting to the fullest extent of the law. There were more than two million illegal streams, akin to hundreds of millions of dollars. Sites, mostly using Google’s YouTube, such as FilmDaily, AccessTVPro, online2livestream, crackstreamslive, Sports-Today, My-Sports, bilasport, Trendy Clips, Mike, Your Extra, Eclipt Gaming, ItsLilBrandon and John Does 1-100, and others are causing significant damage not just to Triller Fight Club but content creators overall.
“People put a lot of hard work, time and money into creating a product for the consumer, and having it stolen and resold is terribly damaging. The good news is they are not protected by VPN masking or other firewalls as their activities are criminal and grand theft, so we will ultimately find them and prevail not just for us but for content creators in general.”
Quick hit
PBC announced additional preliminary bout on the Andy Ruiz-Chris Arreola card Saturday night at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California. Portions of the preliminaries on Fox PPV undercard will be shown for free on the Fox Sports app and Fox Sports website starting at 4:40pm ET and an undercard feed will also be made available to the PBC on Fox YouTube, Twitter and Facebook pages. Among the fights announced: welterweight Adrian Granados (21-8-2, 15 KOs) in an eight-rounder versus Jose Sanchez (11-1, 4 KOs) and heavyweight Carlos Negron (22-3, 18 KOs) against Scott Alexander (16-3-2, 8 KOs) in an eight-rounder.
Show and tell
Sergio Martinez fought the early part of his career at home in Argentina before spending the next few years fighting primarily in Spain and the United Kingdom. But he didn’t make it big until coming to the United States and eventually winning a junior middleweight belt and ultimately the unified and lineal middleweight crown with his big victory over Kelly Pavlik. It wasn’t until then that Martinez became appreciated and a star at home. After five defenses against quality opponents and suffering a serious knee injury beating Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Martinez wanted to fight at home again for the first time in 11 years. Through the efforts of his team and HBO’s willingness to go to Buenos Aires, he got that chance for defense No. 6 when he faced Martin Murray before a raucous sold-out crowd of some 50,000 at the Club Atletico Velez Sarsfield, an outdoor soccer stadium, where there were high winds and a driving rain storm.
Martinez got knocked down in the eighth round, re-injured his right knee, broke his left hand and suffered a bad cut over his left eye but emerged with a disputed unanimous decision — 115-112 on all three scorecards — to retain the title for the final time as he would be sidelined for 14 months before losing it to Miguel Cotto in his next fight, in large part because his knee, still a major issue, severely hampered him. But Martinez fought bravely though the injuries against Murray in the homecoming he wanted and deserved on April 27, 2013 — eight years ago on Tuesday. Here is an extremely rare site poster from the fight in my collection.
Team Mayer photo: Mikey Williams/Top Rank; Edwards photo: Queensberry Promotions
IMO Martin Murray was robbed in Germany when challenging Sturm for the WBA 160lb world title and then robbed in Argentina when challenging Martinez for the WBC 160lb world title.
There was also some creative accounting involved when he lost a WBO world title challenge at 168 in Germany against Arthur Abraham.
I think Martin can count himself very unlucky to have never won a world title.
Meaningless bout that only suckers will pay for. Save your money for actual boxing match between 2 current elite fighters rather than this joke.