From boxing’s greatest-ever PPV star to desperate sideshow: Floyd Mayweather’s farcical post-retirement career has seen mass brawls in and out of the ring and tickets flogged for £5 to fill a near-empty O2 Arena
- Floyd Mayweather took part in his seventh exhibition bout on Saturday night
- A mass brawl broke out after his opponent John Gotti III attacked TBE post-fight
- What does Mayweather’s post-retirement career mean for his overall legacy?
Floyd Mayweather‘s latest post-retirement bout descended into chaos on Saturday night as his opponent John Gotti III, grandson of infamous mobster John Gotti, sparked a mass brawl in the ring after their fight was waved off in controversial circumstances.
Referee Kenny Bayless called an end to the contest in the sixth round due to excessive holding and trash-talking from the pair.
Angered by the decision, Gotti III vented his frustrations by attacking Mayweather after Bayless had stepped in, as dozens rushed to the ring to intervene.
These latest farcical scenes follow a series of needless exhibition bouts put on by Mayweather that only serve to damage the legacy of one of the greatest boxers of all time.
When Mayweather chose to have his 50th and final professional fight against UFC star Conor McGregor back in 2017 there were groans of disapproval from the boxing world.
Floyd Mayweather had his seventh post-retirement fight against John Gotti III on Saturday
A mass brawl broke out in the ring after Gotti III swung for Mayweather after the fight was stopped
Mayweather vs Logan Paul sold one million PPV’s on Showtime in the United States
But it would pale in comparison to what was to come next.
Just 16 months later Mayweather would return to the ring to face kickboxing ace Tenshin Nasukawa in an exhibition bout over in Japan.
The undefeated youngster put up little resistance as he was blasted out in the opening round.
And for a time that seemed to be the end of it. Yet sadly it wasn’t.
Paul, who outweighed the boxing legend by almost 40lbs, spent the entire eight rounds holding on for dear life as he survived to hear the final bell.
To both men’s credit though, there was at least some level of intrigue surrounding the contest as it pulled in one million pay-per-view buys on Showtime in the United States alone.
However, Mayweather’s proceeding exhibition fights against Don Moore, Mikuru Asakura, Deji Olatunji, Aaron Chalmers and Gotti spectacularly flopped at the box office – at least according to estimates as there have been no official numbers posted for any of the aforementioned bouts.
Mayweather called time on his professional career in 2017 with a win over Conor McGregor
His most recent exhibition bouts haven’t fared so well commercially, especially his penultimate contest with Aaron Chalmers
Fans appear to have grown tired of Mayweather’s insistence of flogging a dead horse and that was clear to see in his penultimate fight with ex-Geordie Shore cast member Aaron Chalmers.
London’s O2 Arena, was nearly completely empty on the night as organisers desperately slashed ticket prices to as low as £5 in an attempt to fill the 20,000 seater.
But that didn’t seem to be a good enough indicator for Mayweather to hang up his gloves for good and so fans were subjected to another tedious showing against Gotti this weekend.
