Floyd Mayweather vs Logan Paul: Amir Khan blasts exhibition fight as 'it's not good for the sport'

GiveMeSport

scores

By Tom Ward

Published Jun 30, 2021

Amir Khan angrily slams Floyd Mayweather's exhibition match against Logan Paul

Amir Khan admits he wasn't a fan of Floyd Mayweather's exhibition fight with Logan Paul, saying 'it's not good for the sport of boxing'.

Earlier this month, Mayweather (50-0), 44, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, went the distance with the controversial YouTuber-turned-pro boxer Paul (0-1), 26, of Westlake, Ohio, in an eight-round exhibition bout at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami on June 6.

While Mayweather joked that he had got away with "legalised bank robbery" during Showtime's pre-fight pay-per-view show Inside Mayweather vs Paul, Khan failed to see the funny side of his comments, as he insists that Paul could have gotten seriously hurt.

"I'm not really a big fan of that exhibition thing,” Khan said to Brian Custer on The Last Stand podcast. "No disrespect to Floyd or the other fighters that are doing that, but I just think it's not good for the sport of boxing.

"People are not taking boxing seriously and boxing's a sport where, the time they are going to start taking it seriously is when someone gets badly hurt.

"We just don't want that to happen. I think it would be quite tarnishing for boxing if God forbid a YouTuber got knocked out by a professional fighter.

"You can't really compare the two. I would never do that because I would be scared to hurt someone. If you hurt an influencer and you are the fighter that people always respected, you're going to lose that respect.”

In terms of the actual fight itself, Khan then suggested that Mayweather has damaged his reputation and questioned whether he needed the money in the first place.

He added: "Really, you shouldn't be sharing the ring with that person. Floyd did it a couple of weeks ago in Miami other day against Logan Paul.

"He couldn't hurt Logan and it looked bad for him. Him being a trained professional fighter for many years, whereas Logan came, put his gloves on and went in the ring.