Floyd Mayweather vs. Logan Paul: For the Money and the Clicks

 

PHOTO: CHANDAN KHANNA/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

A boxing retiree takes on a social media phenom in a fight for attention and cash

The 44-year-old boxer Floyd Mayweather fought the YouTube star Logan Paul Sunday night, not for posterity, or any compelling athletic reason, but for the algorithm. 

The algorithm—the search engine optimization; the influencer data; the sheer volume of social media clicking, most of it associated with Paul, who has 23 million YouTube subscribers—said enough people would be mildly to genuinely curious about such a fight that they might pay $49.99 to see it. If you know anything about the sport of boxing, you know this was more than enough motivation to make it happen. 

I’m not being holy about this. It’s 2021. I’m also here for the clicks.

In boxing, there is some worry that this is bad for the sport, that exhibition goofs like Mayweather vs. Paul cannibalize the legitimate stuff and undermine efforts to lift the product. To which the correct response is, again: Could I introduce you to boxing? The profession has a rich tradition of stunt fighting—Muhammad Ali once battled the pro wrestler Antonio Inoki; George Foreman fought five men in a single night; Mayweather has previously tangled with the cage fighter Conor McGregor, kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa, and the WWE wrestler Big Show. Celebrity boxing has its own raffish history, from Danny Bonaduce vs. Donny Osmond to Paula Jones vs. Tonya Harding to Jose Canseco vs. Everyone, and so the idea of a grandad retiree with a lifetime record of 50-0 getting into the ring against a 26-year-old influencer with a professional record of 0-1…let’s just say it’s not exactly heretical to the business.

In Logan Paul, as well as his 24-year-old brother, Jake, himself a YouTuber-turned-pugilist, boxing has found a way to rework the usual celeb boxing melancholy into something with far bigger metrics. A controversial fameball with tens of millions of followers/viewers/listeners can quickly break through in a distracted universe in which every form of entertainment is in a claw fight for eyeballs, especially young eyeballs. Why take the long road fighting lesser-known names, when you can tangle with a clickbait Klitschko?

Into this marched “Money” Mayweather, with his undefeated record, his unyielding quest for millions, and a past which includes a two-month stint in jail in 2012 after pleading guilty to misdemeanor domestic battery charges. Mayweather’s last meaningful fight was six years ago, against Andre Berto, but as was the case with 2017’s Conor Cash, a Paul Haul was too much to resist, and so there Mayweather was, around 11 p.m., marching into Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla., wearing a hat sponsored by OnlyFans, a face mask sponsored by Bet Online, and, in an apt statement of strange times, a pair of trunks sponsored by EthereumMax.org.

The belt of Paul’s trunks, meanwhile, read PAUL, and he arrived in the ring wearing a rare Pokemon card around his neck in a bedazzled lanyard. The YouTuber walked in with a 6-inch height and 30-plus pound weight advantage, to say nothing of the age difference, but he was the profound underdog, and the wide assumption was that Mayweather, as he did with the far more experienced McGregor, would carry his stunt opponent for a little while, make it look interesting enough for 50 bucks, then wrap up the night. 

To quote a passe SEO headline style, you’ll never believe what happened next. Or maybe you’ll believe it completely. Paul was, unsurprisingly, the lesser fighter, mechanically wooden, dreadfully inaccurate with his punches, but he was fit enough to take a few shots to the chin from Mayweather, and then drape his large frame atop on him, tying him up. What seemed to be a match primed to end in the third or fourth round suddenly found itself lumbering for the full distance of eight. A winner was not declared because, again: it was just an exhibition. 

I know this sounds like a rather dull rendering of a big boxing match but that is exactly what $49.99 bought. You’ve witnessed more spirited confrontations in line at the airport. 

When it was over, Mayweather said nice things about Paul, and Paul said nice things about Mayweather, and Paul also teased the prospect of a rematch, which made Mayweather smile. The money, of course, is the thing here, and the new rules of modern media engagement mean that more and more of it will go to the people who can drive clicks and the conversation. 

I don’t think this means we are going to see Logan Paul in a Wimbledon final, or in goal for the Stanley Cup finals, but he may have cracked something in spectacle-driven boxing. This is how an attention economy works—some things are considered successful not because they are especially worthwhile, or even interesting, but because they generate traffic. The clicks are the thing. Mere punchers don’t stand a chance.