From boxing’s biggest PPV star to desperate sideshow: Floyd Mayweather’s wacky post-retirement career has seen mass brawls in and out of the ring and tickets whipped up for £5 to fill an O2 Arena nearly empty
- Floyd Mayweather competed in his seventh exhibition fight on Saturday night
- A mass brawl broke out after his opponent John Gotti III attacked TBE after the fight
- What does Mayweather’s post-retirement career mean for his overall legacy?
Floyd Mayweather’s final post-retirement fight descended into chaos on Saturday night as his opponent John Gotti III, grandson of infamous gangster John Gotti, sparked a mass fight in the ring after their fight was called off in controversial circumstances.
Referee Kenny Bayless ended the contest in the sixth round due to excessive holding and abusive language from the pair.
Angered by the decision, Gotti III vented his frustrations by attacking Mayweather after Bayless interfered, as dozens of people rushed to the ring to intervene.
These latest wacky scenes follow a series of pointless exhibition fights staged by Mayweather that only serve to damage the legacy of one of the greatest boxers of all time.
When Mayweather opted to have his 50th and final professional fight against UFC star Conor McGregor 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 a million PPVs on Showtime in the United States
But that would pale in comparison to what was to follow.
Just 16 months later, Mayweather returned to the ring to face kickboxing ace Tenshin Nasukawa in an exhibition bout in Japan.
The undefeated youngster put up little resistance as he was knocked out in the first round.
And for a moment, that seemed to be the end. However, this was unfortunately not the case.
In June 2021, Mayweather’s career hit an all-time low when he took on YouTuber Logan Paul in another exposure prank.
Paul, who towered over the boxing legend by nearly 40 pounds, spent the entire eight rounds holding on as he survived to hear the final bell.
To both men’s credit however, there was at least some level of intrigue surrounding the contest as it drew one million pay-per-view buys on Showtime in the US alone.
However, Mayweather’s ongoing exhibition fights against Don Moore, Mikuru Asakura, Deji Olatunji, Aaron Chalmers and Gotti have failed spectacularly at the box office – at least according to estimates, as there have been no official figures. released for any of the aforementioned fights.
Mayweather ended his professional career in 2017 with a win over Conor McGregor
His more recent exhibition fights haven’t done so well commercially, especially his penultimate contest with Aaron Chalmers.
Fans seem to have grown tired of Mayweather’s insistence on whipping a dead horse and that was clear in his penultimate fight with former Geordie Shore cast member Aaron Chalmers.
London’s O2 Arena was almost completely empty overnight as organizers desperately slashed ticket prices to £5 in a bid to fill all 20,000.
But that didn’t seem like enough of an indicator for Mayweather to hang up his gloves for good and so fans were subjected to another tedious display against Gotti over the weekend.
