Floyd Mayweather has shrugged off Jake Paul’s claims that he is ducking the YouTuber-turned-boxer.
Paul recently revealed that a fight with Mayweather would be ‘physically impossible’ due to the boxing legend’s insistence that Paul must cut down to 160lbs in order to land the crossover clash.
‘The Problem Child’ is a natural cruiserweight (200lbs), who tipped the scales at 227lbs for his last outing against Mike Tyson in November, so boiling down a further 40lbs would be ill advised.
However, Mayweather, who competed from super featherweight (130lbs) to super welterweight (154lbs) during his unblemished 50-0 pro career, believes he has a solution.
“Well, we can do an exhibition,” Mayweather told Us Weekly when asked how they can get around the weight difference.
“We know we can’t do a real fight because it’s not going to be sanctioned because of the weight difference.
“But we could do an exhibition. That’s easy work, super easy.”
‘TBE’ fought Jake’s older brother Logan Paul in an exhibition bout in 2021, under a similar weight format.
Logan weighed 189.5lbs, while Mayweather came in at 155lbs – a 34.5lbs discrepancy.
As it was a non-scoring bout, the contest was declared an automatic draw when they went the eight-round distance with each other.
Logan believes this was an eye-opening experience for Mayweather that taught him the importance of weight.
After Jake insisted Mayweather ‘wouldn’t sign to fight him’ on a recent vlog, Logan added: “I think it’s because when he fought me even as an amateur boxer, two or three years in, I landed way too many shots and he wasn’t able to knock me out.
“Floyd that night was like ‘Weight matters’ so now his rule is you have to be his weight.
“He said I was holding him all night. I vividly remember Floyd saying ‘On June 6, I guarantee I’m going to knock him out’.
“In the second round he was huffing and puffing in the corner, ‘It’s hard to hit him with a jab’.”
“The narrative changes, it is just so funny to me.”
In response to the Paul brother’s comments, Mayweather added: “We offered Jake Paul the fight probably 10 or 20 times and he turned us down. So that’s b******.”
Despite their differences, Mayweather was able to pay the siblings their dues when it came to their work ethic.
“One thing about Jake Paul and Logan Paul, we can’t knock their hustle,” Mayweather continued.
“I take my hat off. I like how they hustle.”
Jake has emerged from his brother’s shadow to carve out a lucrative 11-1 professional boxing career that has included wins over Tyson, Nate Diaz, Anderson Silva and Tyron Woodley.
Meanwhile, Logan is a WWE superstar and a former United States title holder.
