Floyd Mayweather is going to fight Logan Paul, and a lot of people are probably wondering, "Why?"
There's a very simple answer as to why Mayweather and Paul are fighting: money.
While professional boxing matches typically have some sort of belt they're fighting over, exhibition matches offer up a different incentive. Sometimes there's an actual reason behind them, whether it be beef between the two parties or something to prove between them. But in the case of Mayweather vs. Paul, it's mostly just about the paycheck.
Paul is no stranger to how much revenue he can generate through boxing. In his professional fight against KSI, he pocketed $900,000 just for the fight itself, per the California State Athletic Commission. He also reportedly earned money from the PPV shares and subscriptions to DAZN, the service that aired the fight.
MORE: What is the purse in the Mayweather vs. Paul fight?
Official numbers were never released on how many PPV buys there were for DAZN, but promoter Eddie Hearn said, "The first fight did 1.2 million pay-per-view buys globally. This was much, much bigger this time around." Reports indicated there were an additional 216,000 PPV buys in the UK on Sky Sports.
That's essentially just a long-winded way of saying there's a lot of money to be made in this fight.
Floyd Mayweather on why he's fighting Logan Paul
Mayweather was pretty straightforward about why he accepted a fight against Paul when speaking on the Disruptive Entrepreneur Podcast.
"I can fight a fighter right now and I can guarantee myself $35 million," Mayweather said. "Or me and Logan Paul, or a YouTuber, we can go out and entertain and have fun and make nine figures, $100 million or more."
While the money is the main driving force here, Mayweather also told the podcast it's something fun he can do while in retirement.
"Why not? Something different, something I don't mind doing," Mayweather said. "It's something that the people want to see."
Logan Paul on why he's fighting Floyd Mayweather
While appearing on ESPN's "First Take," Paul said he was approached with this offer and added, "it's not something you say 'no' to."
Much like Mayweather's response, Paul is all about bringing in the cash and entertaining the people.
"As long as it can bring an audience, Jake and I want to be the biggest prize fighters on the planet. We wanna fight people who will put on a big show, draw a large audience and entertain a lot of people. That's what we wanna do," Paul said. "This is a three, four, five, six, seven-year plan."
Paul has also said multiple times in press runs for this event that he has nothing to lose by doing this.
"What happens if I win? The world's axis stands still, time will stop, it's going to be the biggest upset in the history of combat sports," Paul said. "And what happens if I lose? Nothing, life goes on."
