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Stephen Espinoza has no doubt that the Floyd Mayweather-Logan Paul fight will happen.
The date and the site of their pay-per-view exhibition have not been determined, however, according to Showtime’s president of sports and event programming. Espinoza told Chris Mannix on his Sports Illustrated boxing podcast Friday that those details related to the Mayweather-Paul event should be finalized soon.
“In terms of the specifics, it is premature,” Espinoza said. “You know, there are reports out, one of which has sort of pegged the date as June 5th. It’s definitely not June 5th. It never has been. There are a few dates that we’re sort of circling and a few venues. You know, Floyd put up a poll [on Instagram] earlier, a few days ago, about different cities. And that’s really where we are. I do expect some definitive resolution within, I don’t know, the next few days, the next week roughly. But there really isn’t – I’m not trying to be coy – it hasn’t been determined, date, venue, etc.”
Had Mayweather-Paul been scheduled for June 5, it might’ve competed head-to-head with another pay-per-view event set for that night, Teofimo Lopez-George Kambosos Jr. Triller Fight Club might’ve rescheduled its show featuring Lopez, the undefeated, unified lightweight champion, and Kambosos, the mandatory challenger for Lopez’s IBF title, if Mayweather-Paul had been scheduled for June 5.
While the date and venue have yet to be determined, Espinoza always expected that Showtime would be involved in at least distributing Mayweather-Paul on pay-per-view. Mayweather-Paul tentatively was scheduled for February 20, but it was postponed indefinitely for various reasons before any legitimate promotion began.
“I think the bigger question has been, you know, is it going to happen?,” Espinoza said. “Is the event going to happen? And in what state? There never really was a question, I think, from our perspective about being involved. You know, I think we’ve had a long and successful relationship with Floyd. This one is a little bit different from the other ones, but you know, we wanna remain in business with him and he’s comfortable with us. So, you know, we’re riding with Floyd. You know, if this is where he’s going, then we’re gonna be along with him, with good partners.”
Mayweather became the highest-paid boxer in the history of the sport after agreeing to a six-fight contract with Showtime in February 2013.
The retired five-division champion will be a huge favorite over Paul, despite that Paul stands six inches taller than Mayweather and might weigh as much as 30 pounds more than him in their exhibition. Whereas the 44-year-old Mayweather (50-0, 27 KOs) is typically touted as the best boxer, pound-for-pound, of his generation, the 26-year-old Paul lost his only professional boxing match by split decision to fellow YouTube star Olajide Olatunji, better known as “KSI.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.