Former five-weight world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. has announced he will take on Youtuber Logan Paul in a “special exhibition” boxing match next year. Mayweather retired in 2017 following a lucrative boxing match with MMA star Connor McGregor.
Paul, on this part, has fought once professionally when he lost to fellow YouTube personality KSI in November 2019.
Mayweather, 43, retired with a perfect 50-0 record and 27 of them were knockout wins.
“Super Exhibition Feb. 20, 2021 !!!!” Mayweather posted on his Instagram account.
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The 25-year-old Paul had been calling out the boxing legend in the past, teasing him on several occasions fanning speculations if the grossly mismatched bout will take place in the future.
“These YouTube girls better find some Barbie dolls to play with cause I’m not the one for the kid games. Three years ago a fighter from the UFC said my name and I had to put a muzzle on that b****. Logan Paul can get the same treatment before I go conquer Japan again,” Mayweather had said in November.
Paul replied, “If I caught him. If I caught Floyd with one punch, one punch. I would snap the **** in half. You know me, I am eight inches taller. I am 40 lbs heavier.”
Mayweather’s last professional bout saw him beating McGregor from which he reportedly earned a whopping USD 100m. He then took on Japanese kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa in 2018 in an exhibition match from which he made a reported USD 9m.
Mayweather, widely regarded as one of the greatest boxers, just needed 140 seconds to beat Nasukawa.
The fight between Mayweather and Paul will take place on February 20 and will be streamed as pay-per-view.
The first 1 million subscribers will pay USD 24.99 and the price may go up to as high as USD 69.99.
Last week, Paul’s younger brother Jake fought with former NBA star Nate Robinson as an undercard of Mike Tyson vs Roy Jones Jr exhibition in Los Angeles. Jake went on to win by knockout.
Paul is a famous social media personality boasting over 38 million followers across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
He also has over 22 million subscribers on YouTube.