Mayweather vs Paul: The Emergence Of Celebrity Boxing

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Friends,

Floyd Mayweather almost broke the internet last night with an announcement that he has struck a deal to fight YouTuber and celebrity personality Logan Paul in a “special exhibition” match on February 20th.

Fanmio, a platform that offers meet and greet packages with celebrities, will stream the fight via pay-per-view.

Before we get into the details, let’s discuss the elephant in the room.

Floyd Mayweather is a world-class boxer.

He is undoubtedly one of the best to ever step into a ring and certainly the best of his generation. Mayweather has a pristine professional record of 50-0, with 27 wins coming via knockout.

In total, Mayweather has 15 titles across 5 different weight classes, has sold billions of dollars in pay-per-view, and is just one of 6 athletes in history that have career earnings over $1 billion.

What about Logan Paul?

Well, he has a professional record of 0-1 after losing to fellow YouTuber KSI in 2019.

Simply put, this fight is a joke.

The only problem?

We have entered an age of celebrity boxing, where conditioning, speed, and training don’t matter — only popularity does.

Let me explain…

While Floyd Mayweather has put together a hall-of-fame resume after beating up legendary fighters like Manny Pacquiao, Canelo Alvarez, Oscar De La Hoya, and others — he has occasionally taken the celebrity boxing route also.

Some will disagree, but let’s be honest — Mayweather’s fight against Connor McGregor in 2017 was a celebrity boxing match.

The result?

Mayweather heavily promoted the event, messed around for a few rounds, eventually won by knockout, and made over $275 million for one night of work — his largest professional payday ever.

A better example?

On New Year’s Eve in 2018, Floyd Mayweather traveled to Tokyo for a three-round exhibition against 20-year-old kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa.

Mayweather showed up two hours late, was out of shape, and danced around the ring, yet he ended the fight in less than 3 minutes, made Tenshin Nasukawa cry, and left with $9 million — or $3 million per minute.

Point being — when it comes to money, anything goes.

While Logan Paul doesn’t have the boxing resume to compete with a world-class technician like Floyd Mayweather, he certainly has the celebrity status to sell tickets.

Here are Logan Paul’s social stats:

• YouTube Subscribers: 22.6 million

• Instagram Following: 18.6 million

• Twitter Following: 5.8 million

Furthermore, check this out…

The price was cheaper, but Logan Paul vs KSI in 2018 did similar pay-per-view numbers compared to the highly anticipated exhibition match between Mike Tyson & Roy Jones Jr.

My point?

With boxing in a state of declining interest & viewership, celebrities can sell tickets.

In the end, Floyd Mayweather will certainly make closer to the $9 million he received for fighting Tenshin Nasukawa than the $275 million he made for fighting Conor McGregor, but since he is the only one with anything to lose — why is he doing it?

Think about it this way…

Given Floyd Mayweather has a professional record of 50-0 against some of the most skilled boxers in the world, I’d place his chances of getting knocked out closer to 0% than 1%.

Are those odds worth a potential $50-$100 million payday?

Mayweather seems to think so.

Ultimately, this fight just signifies a further shift toward the inevitable.

Whether hardcore boxing fans like it or not, we live in a society that places an enhanced value on celebrity status and artificially inflated drama.

As celebrity boxing continues to offer new & legacy streaming networks like DAZN, Triller, HBO and Fanmio increased distribution and high PPV sales, we are only going to see it happen more often.

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Extra Credit

From a pay-per-view perspective, Fanmio is actually taking a rather unique approach.

In an attempt to gather a substantial amount of cash up-front and increase guaranteed money to fighters before February 20th, Fanmio has introduced tiered pay-per-view pricing.

It probably won’t work for most events, but it’s definitely a unique approach.

Here’s how it works:

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