Author: Dan Hiergesell

Floyd Mayweather Jr. may have mopped the floor with social media star Logan Paul during their exhibition boxing match last month, but many fight fans expected “Money” to put an end to Paul. Surprisingly, Paul lasted all eight rounds with Mayweather and can now say he went the distance with one of the greatest boxers of all time.

After the fight, boxing enthusiasts expressed their belief that Mayweather did his best to make the fight last and give the fans the most bang for their buck. Some even believe Mayweather stopped Paul from falling to the canvas multiple times during the fight. That may be a stretch, but Mayweather made it look like light work.

That said, “Money” wasn’t able to finish Paul and put an end to his combat crusade. Floyd’s uncle, Jeff Mayweather, doesn’t believe it was due to a lack of trying. Instead, Mayweather believes “Money” simply didn’t have enough in him to put away the much larger Paul.

“I thought what happened could have happened because nobody else was thinking that the age, 44, was gonna show up,” said Mayweather speaking on The Champ and The Chump (via The Mac Life). “And plus, Logan Paul had Floyd about 6 inches in height, probably about 40 pounds in weight. And he still an athlete. He was a wrestler, so I mean, don’t get me wrong and also he did a lot of holding. A whole lot.

“All of that played a part. I think the biggest part is that people have the tendency to forget that Floyd’s not superman. He’s still an athlete, but he’s not the same one that you see now. he’s 44 years old. He still did great for entertainment but I think a lot of people were disappointed because everyone thought there was gonna be a knockout.”

Mayweather, who called the fight “legalized bank robbery,” is not the quintessential knockout artist that you might see step inside of the boxing ring. He usually takes his time, picks apart his opponent, and beats them with precision and volume. That seems to be what Mayweather did against Paul, but considering Paul’s complete lack of experience and overall inept fighting chops the argument can be made that anything short of a knockout finish was a letdown for “Money.”

“I think he wanted to knock him out, of course, but he couldn’t,” Jeff Mayweather continued. “The guy was too big. He did so much holding and you know was strong enough to take those shots, and as soon as he got hit, he locked up. So that made the fight a little ugly.

“I still think if Floyd was younger, he woulda knocked him out.”

What do you think, fight fans? Did Mayweather fail in his attempt to knock Paul out?

Let us know in the comments below!

Fight fans have been left to fend for themselves this weekend with a limited combat schedule. Luckily, Titan FC 70 unfolded Friday night and produced one of the best spinning kick knockouts of the year thus far.

Titan FC 70 aired live on UFC Fight Pass from inside the Intercontinental Hotel in Miami, Fla., and featured a co-main event pairing between flyweights Roy Echeverria and Earnest Walls. It was a rematch from just five months ago after Echeverria defeated Walls via first-round submission at Titan FC 67 back in February. This time around, Walls was stepping up on 48 hours’ notice to fill in for Andrew Richardson.

After 90 seconds of action it was Echeverria who launched a wicked spinning heel kick. The attack landed flush on Walls’ head and forced him to wobble backwards and fall to the canvas. Echeverria rushed in for an insurance shot before referee Larry Folsom stepped in for the stoppage.

Check out the finish above courtesy of UFC Fight Pass.

While this finish is impressive and the win pushes Echeverria’s overall professional MMA record to 5-0 it should be noted that Walls was just 2-17 entering this fight. The defeat now puts him on a 15-fight losing streak with just one of those losses coming via decision.

Former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker is eager to lock down his rematch with current 185-pound king Israel Adesanya in order to prove his first loss to “Last Stylebender” was a result of emotional exhaustion.

Whittaker, who lost his title to Adesanya via second-round knockout at UFC 243 back in Oct. 2019 (highlights HERE), has done everything in his power to fight his way back to a rematch with the champ. This includes three-straight wins over top contenders Darren Till, Jared Cannonier, and Kelvin Gastelum. Whittaker even had a chance to fight Adesanya this past June but scheduling conflicts prevented the rematch from happening.

Still, Whittaker is completely focused on getting back inside of the cage with Adesanya, even if he can’t stand to talk about “Last Stylebender.”

“Lets not talk too much about Israel because I think he’s a piece of sh-t,” Whittaker said in a recent interview on The Howie Games. “He’s just a sh-t person. A sh-t person. Ah, a piece of sh-t is too rough. Too harsh. He’s a sh-thead. There that sounds better. He’s a sh-thead. I don’t like him, he doesn’t like me. Two cats from two different paths that don’t get along.”

Whittaker, who still holds an incredible 11-1 record in the UFC’s middleweight division, believes that he dropped the ball in his first meeting with Adesanya. In fact, “Bobby Knuckles” thinks he lost the fight even before it started. From personal issues outside of the cage to Adesanya’s pre-fight trash talk, Whittaker believes a lack of emotional control cost him his middleweight strap back in 2019.

“It did, because the last fight I was kind of very emotional,” Whittaker admitted when asked if Adesanya’s trash talk paid off. “I was in a bad place for the sport itself, for my career. I got a bit emotional in that fight because I don’t like him very much and on top of everything else that was going on. Lost my cool. I wasn’t really fighting like I should fight, like I normally fight. Props to him, he got in my head. I just think he’s a shithead.”

At this point Whittaker has done enough to sit out and wait for his rematch with Adesanya, who is coming off a lopsided title defense against Marvin Vettori at UFC 263. We’ll have to wait and see when the second installment is booked and if Whittaker can withstand the emotional ride this time around.

Former UFC light heavyweight title challenger Dominick Reyes will be sidelined for the next two months after underdoing surgery on his meniscus this past Thursday.

Reyes, who is currently the No. 5-ranked contender in the UFC’s light heavyweight division, revealed the news on his Instagram story (via MMA Junkie).

While this wasn’t a major surgery that is going to put Reyes out of commission for the rest of the year it’s still a procedure that’s repairing a crucial part of his knee and something that has an immediate effect on his mobility. The typical recovery time for the surgery is four to eight weeks so there’s a strong possibility Reyes is able to return to the Octagon by year’s end.

Reyes, 31, may actually benefit from the time off. The once undefeated contender has now lost three in a row dating back to his title fight loss to Jon Jones back in 2020. He has suffered consecutive knockout losses to current 205-pound champion Jan Blachowicz and surging contender Jiri Prochazka. Reyes’ last UFC win came in the form of a first-round knockout over Chris Weidman back in Oct. 2019.

Needless to say, Reyes can’t afford another loss or he’ll really start sliding down the light heavyweight ladder. Putting his return on hold and fixing whatever issues he was experiencing with his meniscus could refuel “Devastator” to make another run at light heavyweight gold when he makes his return.

Streaking lightweight contender Grant Dawson will take a step up in competition when he meets division staple Carlos Diego Ferreira at UFC’s upcoming event on Oct. 2. This is according to an initial report by MMA Junkie.

As of now, UFC’s show on Oct. 2 does not have an official venue or location. More updates will be provided in the coming weeks.

Dawson, 27, has looked incredible since making his Octagon debut back in 2019. The Wisconsin native has produced a 5-0 record with stoppages over Leonardo Santos, Darrick Miner, and Mike Trizano. Dawson has really managed to dominate his opponents in almost every facet of the fight so it will be interesting to see what he does against a guy who has floating around the top 15 for years.

Ferreira, 36, is coming off back-to-back losses to Gregor Gillespie and Beneil Dariush. The last time the Brazilian contender lost twice under the UFC banner he ended up winning his next six Octagon appearances. Ferreira has a big opportunity this time around to beat a rising contender and remind the 155-pound weight class that he’s still a major player. He is currently ranked No. 12 in the division.

UFC’s upcoming event on Oct. 2 is expected to be headlined by a light heavyweight clash pitting former title challenger Thiago Santos against top-flight finisher Johnny Walker.

Rashad Evans is back in the mix and hoping to score a lucrative boxing match with social media star Logan Paul.

Evans, a former UFC light heavyweight champion, announced last month that he’s coming out of retirement to partake in a special combat event. While Paul would be Evans’ ideal matchup the MMA veteran also revealed interest in fighting former boxing legend Roy Jones Jr.

If Evans does in fact return to fighting it will be his first contest since 2018. In fact, Evans is 0-5 in his last five trips to the UFC’s Octagon. He hasn’t won a fight since a TKO stoppage over Chael Sonnen at UFC 167 all the way back in 2013.

“I know my fighting days are behind me for the large part, but I would just love to go out there and put the gloves on a few more times just to enjoy myself and really end the sport the way that I want to end the sport,” Evans told MMA Fighting.

Evans, who turns 42 this September, isn’t really interested in stepping back inside of the cage. He believes MMA is too brutal and that his current athletic makeup wouldn’t allow him to go all in. Instead, Evans is hoping to score a high-profile boxing match and prove to fans that he’s a legit striker.

“I started out with boxing – boxing was my first love. I started out with boxing when I was 13, 14 years old going to the boxing club in Niagara Falls, N.Y., trained by [Calvin] ‘Pop’ Porter. I was into boxing back then, but then I got out of it with wrestling and everything like that. Now I’m in a stage where MMA is a brutally hard sport. It takes a lot to be able to fight on that aspect. Can I do MMA? I’m sure I can do MMA, but I don’t know if I’ll be at the highest level based on everything that it encompasses, and I don’t know if I want to put my body through an MMA match.

“When it came to competing, I wanted it to be fun. I wanted it to be something different and challenging and there’s nothing like the sweet science of boxing.”

Evans joins a long list of fighters looking to take advantage of the growing interest for celebrity fights and entertaining boxing matches. It’s not something that Evans was initially fond of, but “Sugar” eventually came around to the idea after seeing how both Logan and Jake Paul handle themselves in training and in the ring.

“At first when it first started happening, I was like oh my gosh, what is this, it’s a mockery of the sport,” he said. “But then it took a while for me to get but once I got it, I got it. I understood as far as when it comes down to it, these guys, Jake Paul, Logan Paul, these guys have a huge following and they’ve been following since they were knee high on Disney. So they’ve loved these guys. Watching these guys compete and reach the level that they’re able to reach with boxing is amazing for them. It’s everything for them.

“I’m going to be honest, at first I thought these guys were going to go in there and not take the sport serious and just clown around and just do what they do, be a prankster about it. But they took it serious. They actually look like athletes. They look pretty good. Jake Paul looked pretty tough to be honest. Logan looked pretty decent in his last fight, too. They’re showing like they’ve got a lot of potential and I really like what they’re doing by fighting guys who are fighters but at the same time aren’t boxing guys and it gives them a chance to have somewhat a chance in the fight. It makes it interesting.”

“I think I am the fight for Logan Paul,” continued Evans. “If Logan Paul is serious about fighting then he’ll fight me. If he wants to play around he can fight somebody else. But if he really wants to fight, he wants to really grow himself, then he’ll fight me.

“He’s a young guy, he’s got a lot of physical tools and I want to see how I match up with that. I think it would be a fight that fans would want to see. They’ve seen him with Floyd Mayweather. They’ve seen he’s got a little bit of squabble, he can hang in there. He hung in there with the champ. The champ wasn’t able to get him out of there.

“Let’s see what he’s really about. I think his next fight has to be what he’s about. It can’t just be about surviving. He’s really got to go out there and try to put it on somebody. He doesn’t want to keep fighting all these guys, all these legit boxers who’s got all these skills. He might as well try his hand with me.”

What say you, Maniacs? Should Evans be next in line for Logan Paul? If so, would you pick him to win?

Sound off!