The exhibition boxing match between Logan Paul and Floyd Mayweather on Sunday night was a farce for many reasons — but a video clip from the fight suggests it may have gone as far as to be fixed.
With a few seconds left in one of the rounds, Paul lunged at Mayweather and missed, and the boxing champ countered with a swift punch to the side of the YouTuber’s head. After the hit connected, Paul appeared to go limp.
Instead of letting him fall, Mayweather appeared to hold him up off the floor, preventing a knockdown — or, perhaps, a knockout.
The round ended shortly thereafter and Paul was able to stay upright for the rest of the fight, with an end result of a no decision (though, since it was an exhibition match, the only real way a victor was going to be declared was through a knockout).
“This is still one of the greatest moments of my life … damn, I’m happy,” Paul said after the fight. “You never know with this guy, I’m going to go home thinking, ‘Yo, did Floyd let me survive?'”
That said, the clip has led many to suggest that the match could have been fixed to last all eight rounds. Perhaps each “boxer” had an incentive to keep their match clean and go the distance for future bookings.
It was not possible to bet on the fight in the US due to it being an exhibition match with no official decision, but in the UK, Mayweather was a -700 favorite, according to the Action Network. Those who took those odds may be upset with the video.