LY: THE CASE FOR CELEBRITY BOXING
By: Allan Ly
RP Show Intern
Sunday’s celebrity boxing match between Floyd “Money” Mayweather and YouTube sensation Logan Paul does not mean anything.
For starters, according to ESPN’s Marc Raimondi, no judges will be present during the fight, so no winner can be announced. Still both fighters stand to make a lot of money and that might be the only benefit.
Floyd has gotten paid a lot for these kinds of fights in the past. For example, according to Forbes’s Kurt Badenhausen, Mayweather made a stellar $275 million when he fought Conor McGregor in a boxing match against the MMA star in 2017.
For the next year, Mayweather made $9-million, according to Josh Peters of USA today, when he beat Japanese kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa in an exhibition boxing match in 2018.
Sunday’s fight with Mayweather and Paul is expected to bring in a lot of money, as reported by Sporting News.com’s Zac Al-Khateeb as Mayweather described his choice to fight Logan Paul on the Disruptive Entrepreneur Podcast.
“I can fight a fighter right now, and I can guarantee myself $35 million,” Mayweather said. “I can eventually probably make $50 million for just a regular fight or me and Logan Paul can go out, entertain, have fun and make nine figures, $100 million or more.”
To see this fight on Sunday it will cost $49.99 while a monthly subscription to UFC Fight Pass only costs $9.99.
A Mayweather fight is still an entertaining draw and in the boxing ring, he is undefeated with 50 wins and no losses; however, these fights are getting dumb.
In fairness, I would rather pay the money to watch the Mayweather fight instead of the upcoming boxing card that will feature Youtube fighters against Tik Tok fighters on June 12.
The Tik Tok/Youtube fight will cost the same amount as the Mayweather fight, but if you want more stuff then you will get an exclusive sweater plus the fight and a NFT and a six month LiveXLive Plus streaming subscription. According to the Social Gloves website that is promoting the fight, that package will cost $89.99.
The fight that inspired this event came from social media influencers KSI who fought Youtuber Joe Weller and then Youtube star Logan Paul, older brother of Jake Paul twice.
I am not looking forward to the Youtube and Tik Tok fight as Youtubers stars like Deji and AnEsonGib had previously tried their hands at boxing and got their clocks cleaned by Jake Paul.
Unfortunately, everything has a special niche as people love to see celebrities duking it out in a boxing ring.
There was even a TV show with Celebrity Boxing matches that aired on FOX in 2002; but it only lasted for two episodes.
The show had celebrities not as famous or, like James Murphy from Sports Insider called it, “C list celebrities.”
Murphy described the fights as a ‘desperation vibe’ and how “the entire fiasco came off as cruel and exploitative.”
This Tik Toker versus Youtuber fight could give the similar effect or a similar result.
The only kind of cross-sport boxing fight that I am interested in is MMA legend Anderson “The Spider” Silva versus boxing legend Julio Cesar Chavez Jr scheduled for June 19.
The June 19 PPV will just cost $39.99 on FITE streaming service, so it is cheaper than the other fights.
In this fight, we got a UFC legend who is regarded as one of the best and a boxer with 52 wins and only five losses.
We also got the legend Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. who will make his last fight appearance ever. He has a fight record of 106 wins, with just only 6 losses and 2 draws.
Chavez Sr. last fight will be against Hector Camacho Jr in an exhibition match, he is the son of boxing great Hector Camacho Sr.
The only downside to these fights is that the fighters are past their prime, but in my opinion, it is more entertaining than Youtubers and Tik Tok fighters duking it out.
The Chavez/Silva fight card is the only one with an actual title defence, with Damian Sosa facing off against Abel Mina for the WBO NABO Super Welterweight title.
People will get entertained with a lot of fights; however, not all are worth the money.
(Follow Allan on Twitter @Allantheintern)