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Logan Paul will fight Floyd Mayweather in February

No, really. The undefeated former champ is taking on the YouTuber who's never won a fight.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Gael Cooper
2 min read
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Logan Paul is going to box Floyd Mayweather.

Gabe Ginsberg/Getty Images

Thought 2020 was crazy? Just wait until 2021. Boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. and YouTuber Logan Paul announced Sunday that they will fight each other in an exhibition match set for Feb. 20, 2021. The event will air live on pay-per-view.

Mayweather Jr. is 43 and has a 50-0 record in the sport. He's won 15 major boxing world titles, plus a bronze medal in the 1996 Olympics and three U.S. Golden Gloves championships. Paul, who's 25, has ... a lot less boxing experience, though he's fought two amateur matches against British internet personality KSI, ending up with one draw and one loss by split decision.

Fan reaction to the lopsided match-up went about how you would expect, with some calling it a "joke" and others speculating about the money involved.

"Proper boxers work hard all their careers and this wanker gets a pay day and a fake fight," said one Twitter user. "Turning boxing into an even bigger joke."

The Mayweather-Paul PPV match is priced currently at $24.99. (£18 GBP, AU$33), but the price will go up as the date gets closer.

When the news broke on Sunday, musician Snoop Dogg reportedly said he'd like to offer match commentary. Snoop Dogg was a social-media hit doing just that when Logan Paul's brother, Jake Paul, fought Nate Robinson in November.

Logan Paul has made numerous odd headlines over his short public life. In 2019, Paul bought a California ranch that once belonged to LSD advocate and 1960s icon Timothy Leary. And in 2018, he posted footage of the body of a person who apparently died by suicide in Japan, later apologizing for doing so.