I can’t believe I have to write this column, so let’s be clear right out of the gate: If you purchase the Floyd Mayweather-Logan Paul “fight,” thereby enriching both of these terrible humans and encouraging Paul to keep pretending he’s a boxer, you are contributing to the further Idiocracy-ization of America.
Plenty has been written about Floyd Mayweather’s ubiquitous pattern of violence against women. But I’ll hit the low points for those who need a refresher. Here’s what Daniel Roberts wrote about Mayweather back in 2013:
Floyd Mayweather’s history of misogyny, expressed—as he is wont to do—through violence, is well-documented and reprehensible. It extends over a dozen years and includes at least seven separate physical assaults on five different women that resulted in arrest or citation, as well as several other instances where the police had to be summoned in response to an actual or perceived threat from Mayweather.
In 2002, Mayweather was charged with two counts of domestic violence and battery. He received a six-month suspended jail sentence, 48 hours of house arrest, and had to perform community service. In 2004, Mayweather was convicted of two counts of battery against two different women, for which he received a one-year suspended sentence. Suspended sentences are supposed to be a one-time, “keep your nose clean and we’ll forget all about this,” thing. A literal get-out-of-jail-free card. But hey! This is Floyd Mayweather we’re talking about. In 2005, he pleaded no-contest to battery against a bouncer and got (yet another) suspended sentence. Why Floyd Mayweather was still out of jail at this point is beyond me.
In 2010, Mayweather’s former girlfriend (please don’t date Floyd Mayweather, ladies) filed a domestic battery charge against him. Josie Harris had previously accused Mayweather of domestic violence in 2005, but later recanted and claimed that she had lied about the incident, which anyone who has worked with victims of domestic violence will tell you is all too common in abusive relationships. The average battered woman will try to leave her abuser seven times before she succeeds.
This time, Mayweather was finally charged with felony theft (it was suspected he took Harris’ phone so she couldn’t contact law enforcement), two counts of felony coercion, and a misdemeanor count of domestic battery. He went to jail for 90 days for this one, pleading no-contest to two charges he threatened his children. Here’s what Roberts wrote about that incident:
When Harris admitted that she was seeing Watson, Mayweather exploded. He punched her repeatedly in the rear of her head, pulled her off the couch by her hair, and twisted her arm. He screamed that he would “kill” Harris and Watson, that he would make both “disappear.” Harris screamed for her children Koraun and Zion, aged 10 and 9, to call the police. Mayweather turned to the kids, according to the police report, and yelled that he would “beat their asses if they left the house or called the police.” Koraun tried to run up the stairs, but Mayweather’s associate blocked his path. Eventually, he was able to make it outside, and the police were summoned. Koraun told police he had witnessed his father punching and kicking his mother while she lay on the ground. By the time the cops had entered the home, Mayweather had fled, taking Harris’s cell phone with him. In a 2013 interview with Yahoo Sports, Harris stated that she believes Mayweather might have killed her that night if Koraun hadn’t been able to alert the authorities when he did.
“Punching and kicking his mother.” This is where I remind you that Floyd Mayweather is a professional boxer.
After he got out, Mayweather did an interview with Katie Couric, in which he called Harris, the mother of his children, a drug abuser. Harris sued him for defamation.
Do I need to go on? I feel like I shouldn’t have to, but so many men, particularly those in the media, seem so enamored with Mayweather that I feel like I should just keep re-writing the above until people finally get it. But very well, let’s turn to Logan Paul.
Logan Paul would be just another obnoxious YouTuber or Tik Tokker, if he wasn’t such a douche. In fact, when he ripped off the song “Handlebars” by Flobots for one of his dumb videos, which was a study in misogyny by the way (at one point, he rides women like bicycles), Flobots lead singer Jamie Laurie called Paul ‘the face of douchebag entitlement.” What an outstanding and apropos insult. Paul eventually took the video down.
But if you don’t know Logan Paul from being the doofus older brother of another YouTube douche, Jake Paul, then you definitely know him from filming a dead body in Japan’s infamous “suicide forest,” because when you have a YouTube channel, everything is content. After a swift backlash for general terrible behavior while in Japan (including throwing a giant pokéball at passing strangers), he took the video down.
I bet Logan Paul learned his lesson and started behaving like an adult, right? Wrong! In 2018, YouTube suspended ads on Paul’s channel for his taking part in the Tide Pod Challenge, tasering two dead rats, and taking a fish out of his pond to jokingly give it CPR. That same year, Paul and his friends somehow made their way onto Wrigley Field, where one of his friends made the “OK” hand gesture, a wink-wink salute adopted in recent years by white supremacists.
https://twitter.com/LoganPaul/status/1014222371463581696?s=20
I really, really want to get out of this Logan Paul rabbit hole I’ve gone down, because I don’t want to know any of this. But believe me, there’s plenty more, including “standing in solidarity” with his equally braindead brother, Jake, who at 24 has already been accused of sexual assault by two women.
So while Jake Paul has been busy throwing giant parties during COVID and getting raided by the FBI, Logan has decided he’s a boxer. He is not a boxer. This is all a stupid and cynical play for fame and cash.
And look, I know people think this will be funny. I get that watching a guy who batters women and a guy who thinks suicide is great content fight is what passes for entertainment these days. But we can do better than this, can’t we? Aren’t there Jersey Shore reruns on MTV or something you can watch instead? Have you tried Falcon and the Winter Soldier? I promise you it’s a better way to spend your time than this.
So this fight is happening, thanks to Showtime. Logan Paul will make a fortune off it. Floyd Mayweather will make an even bigger fortune and Stephen A. Smith will ooh and ahh over his house again and Triple H will continue trying to get him involved in WWE and the world will keep turning as if these are two people getting a grand gig on Showtime that none of us could ever have any problem with. Because as far as the powers that be are concerned, none of the stuff I’ve written about here matters, as long as people (men) continue to tune in.
There are so many better ways to spend your money. Donate to a local food pantry. Buy a bunch of masks and throw them to people who still refuse to wear them. Get a Cameo from Tori Spelling. And if you really feel like you can’t miss this “bout,” go watch it at a bar, socially distanced and masked up, of course.
For God’s sake, don’t give Logan Paul and Floyd Mayweather any more money.