Longtime business partners say they’ve never seen the former boxing champ lose his cool the way he did with Jake Paul at the press event for his upcoming bout against the YouTuber’s older brother.
Say what you will about the Paul brothers, but their success rate at getting under peoples’ skin is remarkably high. They’ve made a career out of high-profile pranks and confrontations, one that seems to be especially well suited to their transition into the world of combat sports.
Following the success of Jake Paul’s recent Triller boxing match against former UFC welterweight Ben Askren, Floyd Mayweather Jr. lined himself up to be the latest target of the Pauls and their circus-grade buffoonery. ‘Money’ is set to take on Logan Paul in an exhibition boxing match on June 6th. In early May, Mayweather and the elder Paul were on hand at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, FL for a press event to promote their fight. While there, Jake Paul popped up to create his own confrontation with the multiple time world champ.
Following a brief war of words, Jake Paul snagged the baseball cap off Mayweather’s head, sparking a brawl and, apparently, truly enraging Mayweather in the process.
Longtime business partners of the former pro boxer – Leonard Ellerbe (CEO of Mayweather Promotions) and Stephen Espinoza (President of Showtime’s Sports & Event Programming) – spoke to Sky Sports about the incident, claiming that it’s been a long time since they’ve seen Mayweather that angry.
“He was really pissed. I haven’t seen him that pissed for quite some time,” Ellerbe said of the incident, adding that, “it was the disrespect of snatching his hat,” that got to Mayweather.
“I have never seen him that angry,” Espinoza confirmed. “Not even in the McGregor press tour, when it was very personal.”
Espinoza added that the prank was definitely not staged between Mayweather and Jake Paul. Something Logan Paul himself seemed to confirm recently, revealing that he’d asked his brother not to go through with stealing Mayweather’s hat after finding out his intentions. To Espinoza’s mind, it sounds like he feels the incident has added an actual edge of animosity to the fight. One that wasn’t there before.
“Floyd felt disrespected,” Espinoza explained. “He was very angry. He’s not that good an actor, to be quite honest. To show that level of wrath on command for something he wasn’t really angry about? So very much so, it angered him.”
Whether or not Mayweather is truly as pissed off as those promoting the event would like fans to believe, it appears that Jake Paul has provided just the kind of narrative for the boxing match that everyone was looking for to get fans interested.
Mayweather vs. Paul takes place on June 6th in Miami, FL. Outside the ‘YouTube Cruiserweight Championship’ headliner, the card will feature the boxing debut of former NFL star reciever Chad ‘Ochocinco’ Johnson. A scheduled light heavyweight rematch between Badou Jack and Jean Pascal has apparently been scrapped from the card after Pascal tested positive for three different banned substances.