What the Logan Paul vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. Exhibition Without a Winner Means for Bettors

Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Logan Paul threw few punches and landed even less in their eight-round exhibition battle on Sunday night in Miami. As agreed, there was no official scoring for the bout, so neither man won the contest.

It was a fitting and perhaps predictable end to a spectacle that disappointed many viewers, both in the arena and watching on pay-per-view.

Mayweather gets better end in disappointing exhibition

CompuBox numbers showed that Mayweather landed 43 of 107 punches, while Paul landed just 28 of 217, or 13% of his shots. But even those low numbers fail to tell the whole story. An already slow-paced fight ground to a halt in the latter rounds as Paul – the heavier fighter – leaned on Mayweather late. By the eighth and final round, the crowd booed the lack of action.

Paul declared a sort of victory right after the fight, simply for reaching the final bell against one of the greatest boxers of all time.

“I don’t want anyone to tell me anything is impossible ever again,” Paul said after the bout. “The fact that I’m in here with one of the best boxers of all times proves the odds can be beat.”

Meanwhile, Mayweather said his opponent surprised him, while also making it clear he took it easy in the ring. “You’ve got to realize I’m not 21 anymore,” Mayweather said. “He’s better than I thought he was. Good little work. Tonight was a fun night.”

ESPN unofficially scored the fight as a 78-74 victory for Mayweather. Most observers agreed that the legendary boxer got the best of Paul in terms of technique, damage, and pure stats.

Lack of winner voids some fight bets

Since the fight didn’t use judges, there was no official winner. At online sportsbook Bovada, that meant that all bets on the outcome were voided and returned. Whether gamblers bet on Mayweather at -700, or Paul at +450, they simply got their money back afterward.

Some prop bets paid out based on the action, however. Most notably, bettors who predicted the fight would go the distance made out well, as sportsbooks rated that outcome as unlikely. BetOnline offered +205 on the bout going the full eight rounds, for instance.

On social media, fans and media members largely treated the fight with derision.

“Floyd Mayweather made a lot of money tonight,” Darren Rovell wrote. “Floyd Mayweather lost a lot of credibility tonight.”

Mayweather brushed aside those opinions, however. The 44-year-old said he was happy to take the payday, and planned to do more pay-per-view exhibitions in the future. “When I see there’s a chance for me to do a heist, a quick heist. At the end of the day, I’m the smart one,” Mayweather told reporters. “They said ‘Floyd don’t look good like he used to look.’ My bank account is looking better and better each and every day.”