Floyd Mayweather’s famous right hand dropped Ricky Hatton, Oscar De La Hoya and Conor McGregor during his heyday.
But only Paul Wight, aka The Big Show, ever made ‘Money’ leave the ring in fear – even after having his nose legitimately shattered.
Wight, at 7ft tall, was involved in one of WWE‘s most shocking moments when he faced off with 5ft 6in Mayweather.
The 50-0 prizefighter was in a short-lived boxing retirement in 2008 after beating Hatton and crossed over to wrestling.
Ahead of a no-disqualification match with Big Show at WrestleMania 24, Mayweather confronted the World’s Largest Athlete at WWE’s No Way Out pay-per-view.
During an exclusive visit to talkSPORT towers in 2023, Wight confirmed that he told Mayweather to break his nose for real during their scuffle.
However, during our wide-ranging interview on talkSPORT.com, the now-53-year-old also admitted that he knew straight away that he would see red, so he warned Mayweather to flee.
“Floyd’s amazing,” he said.
“I was upset until Shane [McMahon] stood in front of me because there was only about 15 or 20 seconds where, because of adrenaline and hot blood hitting the back of my throat because my nose was busted, that I was a little out of my mind.
“I told [Floyd], ‘hey when you do this, run, because I’m half-nuts so if I get my hands on you…’
“Shane was the only one [who came over] because Shane’s got balls bigger than anybody – I remember Shane coming over and saying, ‘you ok? That was awesome!’ As only Shane could do.
“I knew we had something special then!”
Mayweather heeded Wight’s warning, having jumped straight into a car to leave once his entourage had escorted him through the arena.
But WWE had to bring the boxer back later that night to film promotional videos for WrestleMania alongside the man whose nose he had just busted up.
Wight told talkSPORT in 2023: “Yeah, he left, he was like ‘nah I don’t want any part of it’.
“I remember he peeked in the dressing room [when he later returned], I said, ‘man, good job’.
“Then he relaxed. I think he got it, and he was tremendous professionally to work with because he is a showman, and he understands the showmanship part of it.
“At that time, the angle was so much fun because it’s really hard to do that boxer vs wrestler angle that’s been done.
“It’s an interesting dynamic, and try to do it differently and also pull the fans in and make them excited, I thought the way that whole thing was done and the story we told it worked out.”
Mayweather was reportedly paid $20million for his eventual match at WrestleMania – at least, according to the boxer himself.
“Why is it too much money for Vince McMahon to give me? This is a billion dollar industry, why is it too much to give me $20million? I deserve it! Who’s to say what’s too much? Ain’t nobody who can put a limit on what I should be getting,” he told the Sun in 2008.
“I’ve been filling arenas, putting asses in seats and breaking records. When you do things like that you deserve to eat from the top shelf.”
Mayweather ultimately bested Wight at WrestleMania XXIV in an encounter that lasted just 11 minutes and 40 seconds of the 3 hours and 53 minutes runtime.
The match would likely have gone a lot longer had WWE succeeded in executing their original plans to have another two stars in the feud.
“Originally, that was supposed to be Mayweather and I against Batista and Rey [Mysterio]. It was supposed to be a tag originally”, Wight told talkSPORT two years ago.
“Rey got hurt and Dave [Bautista] got hurt before we even started the angle.
“Dave had torn a lat and Rey had torn a tricep or something and both of those guys were injured and luckily it was before the angle started so we still had time to reboot.
“So they said what about doing a singles with Floyd and I was like, ‘yeah I don’t have to split the payday – Awesome!”
