By Chris Williams: Former two-time heavyweight champion George Foreman was highly impressed with last Sunday’s exhibition match between Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather Jr and YouTube star Logan Paul in their headliner on Showtime pay-per-view in Miami.
The exhibition had no winner because it failed to produce a knockout, but many boxing fans saw it as an eight-round draw at the end.
Foreman, who is no stranger to exhibition matches, having fought five fighters in one night in the 1970s, says he was captivated watching the 44-year-old Mayweather battle the much larger 6’2″ cruiserweight Logan Paul in an eight-round exhibition.
What Foreman liked about the Mayweather-Paul fight is the way the match had a back and forth temp in which Floyd was doing well for a while, then Logan came back strong to dominate with his size.
Foreman saw it as a drama-filled fight, and it wasn’t supposed to be. Most boxing fans felt that Mayweather would slaughter the inexperienced 26-year-old YouTuber Logan, who came into the contest with an 0-1 record as a professional.
You couldn’t even call Logan a true professional because his lone fight as a pro was against fellow YouTuber KSI in 2019. That was more of a celebrity than anything.
Foreman praises Mayweather vs. Paul fight
“It was an exciting night for me,” ‘Big’ George Foreman said to USA Today about his thoughts on the Mayweather vs. Paul exhibition. “And I didn’t expect that.
Believe me; some guys would say, ‘I’m turning this off now.’ I would not leave the television because, at any second, I thought Mayweather might take him out, then the kid [Logan Paul] starts jumping around using his jab and dominating.
“He didn’t have the experience Mayweather had, but he dominated with his size,” Foreman said of the 6’2″ Paul.
The size and the youth of Logan gave Mayweather a lot of headaches in this fight because he was forced to walk through shots to get in punching range to land.
Although Paul isn’t the biggest puncher, just having that size behind his shots made him a tough fight for Mayweather.
Floyd couldn’t get close to Paul without getting hit by his jabs, and when he did get inside, Logan would grab him in a clinch to keep him getting his shots off.
Foreman
“The strangest thing is I’m starting to enjoy these exhibitions a lot more than the so-called competitive fights they put on because there’s no entertainment value to those,’’ Foreman said.
“These have entertainment value. Mayweather turned into the slugger, following the guy around. And (Paul) is as long as Wilt Chamberlain with that jab. It was exciting.’’
Foreman didn’t say what other exhibitions he’s been impressed with, but it’s likely he’s talking about the Mike Tyson vs. Roy Jones Jr fight. Jake Paul’s recent match against Ben Asken counted as a professional fight, but many boxing fans viewed it in the same realm as an exhibition.