Logan Paul surprised many people when he went the eight-round distance in his exhibition fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. on Sunday night. After the match, a theory emerged that Mayweather actually knocked Paul down at one point and held him up to keep the fight going. As you would expect, Paul says there is not a chance that happened.
One video clip from the fight showed Mayweather landing a big right hand on Paul. The punch appeared to affect Paul, and some believed this camera angle showed he was knocked down, but Floyd held him up:
Floyd accidentally knocked him out and held him up to keep the show going lol pic.twitter.com/FQYN1LQX11
— Teej (@StockzNCrypto) June 7, 2021
Other angles made it seem like Paul was just as responsible for the tie-up as Mayweather, so it seems unlikely that Floyd intentionally kept Paul on his feet. After seeing the clip go viral, Paul issued a response on his Instagram story Monday.
“I’m seeing this narrative going around that there’s one part of the fight where Floyd punched me and I kind of leaned on him a little bit and it looks like I kind of went limp,” Paul said. “People are trying to spin it and say that he knocked me out and caught me and kept me up to keep the fight going to the eighth round. Shut the f— up. Just shut the f— up. Stop trying to discredit what happened last night.”
Paul admitted that Floyd landed plenty of shots on him, but he said he is proud of the fact that he didn’t go down.
“Make no mistake, he got a lot of good punches in,” Paul added. “I got f—ed up (with) a couple of shots. I didn’t know my face could make that shape. But I never rocked, never blacked out, never got knocked out. He didn’t hold me up. He tried to take me out and he couldn’t.”
The theory certainly seemed farfetched. While it would make some sense for Mayweather to want to put on a show in a meaningless exhibition, keeping an unconscious opponent on his feet in the heat of battle — especially one who is much bigger than you — would be no easy task.
Mayweather probably didn’t train his hardest to fight Paul, but the comments he made after the exhibition were good business for both men.
