Floyd Mayweather revealed on Friday on social media that he’s working on what he calls a “Huge deal” with RIZIN CEO Nobuyuki Sakakibara and UFC president Dana White. The 44-year-old Mayweather (50-0, 27 KOs) isn’t giving any hints on who he plans to fight with this partnership, but it would seem obvious that he intends to face an MMA-level fighter.
Mayweather posted a photo of himself standing with Sakakibara and White on Friday, saying this:
“TUNE IN! We’re working on a huge deal!
@danawhite @nobu_sakakibara
This might mean something to MMA fans who want to see Mayweather beat up on their stars inside a boxing ring, but it’s not going to interest other fans.
Boxing fans have moved on and are no longer excited at the prospect of seeing Mayweather fight dreadfully over-matched guys, especially since his announcement that he was going to be fighting YouTuber Logan Paul.
It’s gone pure celebrity type matches with Mayweather, which wouldn’t be bad if the fights were free and not being put on during the pandemic.
Fans have better things to spend their money on, like food and bills during the pandemic, rather than watching Mayweather destroy a YouTuber or an MMA fighter.
Mayweather has already shown in his circus fight with former UFC star Conor McGregor that these aren’t competitive fights.
What could really hurt Mayweather’s chances of cashing in on another pay-per-view match involving him fighting an MMA guy is the fact that he hasn’t fought in four years since his extensive PPV match against Conor McGregor in 2017.
When you’ve been out of the ring for as long as Mayweather has, fans forget about you. Yeah, former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson brought in a ton of pay-per-view buys last November for his eight-round exhibition match against Roy Jones Jr, but that was different.
Tyson hadn’t fought since 2005, and he had a reputation for putting on thrilling fights, many of which were competitive. Mayweather’s last competitive fight was way back in his first fight with Marcos Maidana in May 2014 when he beat the Argentinian fighter by a controversial 12 round majority decision.
Every fight since then for Mayweather has been boring mismatches against Maidana, Andre Berto, Manny Pacquiao, and Conor McGregor.
Many fans are already burned out on paying to watch Mayweather beat up on MMA guys regardless of how popular they are or once were. Fans want to see Mayweather fight someone that has a chance of beating him, be it Canelo Alvarez or maybe even 47-year-old Oscar De La Hoya.
Those would be interesting fights, at least for boxing fans they would. Mayweather digging up another hapless MMA guy with no boxing skills would be completely disappointing, and it would be surprising if fans choose to pay to watch the mismatch.
Mayweather’s last two boxing matches have involved him facing a Japanese kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa in December 2018 and former two-division UFC champion Conor McGregor in 2017. Both fighters were uncompetitive and non-entertaining, as most poor mismatches tend to be.
Mayweather Jr is currently supposed to be fighting YouTuber Logan Paul in an exhibition match. That’s a similar type of fight as the McGregor and Nasukawa matches, but far worse because Logan doesn’t come from a boxing background.
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