Manny Pacquiao is the latest ageing boxing star to join the exhibition circuit, against South Korean martial artist/Youtube influencer DK Yoo this Saturday in Seoul.
These exhibitions usually end up being either sparring sessions, staged over shorter distances, or rank mismatches that would never have been licensed. Don’t bet on Pacquiao v Yoo being any different. ‘Pacman’ will either play with Yoo, or blast out a man with one (very unimpressive) boxing match to his name.
The glut of exhibition contests in recent years is probably a result of the trend for celebrity and nostalgia more than anything, but has anyone really come away from watching one of them feeling it was time or money well spent?
Still, as long as people keep buying PPVs and tickets, the trend will continue. But for how long, exactly? Surely you can’t keep serving up duds in what is, after all, a form of entertainment, and expect the customer to keep coming.
Here, in order from least worst to very worst, are 10 of the most high-profile – and most disappointing – exhibition matches of recent times.
10. RICKY HATTON v MARCO ANTONIO BARRERA
November 12, 2022 – Manchester, England
At least this was never sold as anything it wasn’t intending to be.
Hatton, 44, just wanted to walk to the ring one more time, to soak up the atmosphere generated by his adoring fans as his Blue Moon theme tune blasted out, a decade on from when he last did so.
He got his wish, after which he simply sparred with Barrera, 48.
The TV commentators desperately tried to keep us interested by suggesting these old pros could at any moment let pride get the better of them and forget the script.
With two guys who were fast friends and had been all-smiles in the run-up, that was never likely to happen, and the bout trundled through eight underwhelming rounds.
But, again, at least we were never told to expect anything else.
9. FLOYD MAYWEATHER v MIKURU ASAKURA
September 24, 2022 – Saitama, Japan
Mayweather made a second trip to Japan for an exhibition against a fighter from another code, with fans wondering if he would play around or go hard, as he had the previous time he’d visited the Far East.
After a feel-out first round, Asakura started to catch Mayweather, 45, for real, and the American immediately responded by upping the power himself.
A two-punch combo soon put the mixed martial artist down and out.
Had the fight gone the distance, it would have only lasted three rounds. That it didn’t shows how meetings between fighters from different sports under a rule set to suit only one of them are usually mismatches.
But at least it was a real fight and, unlike in Mayweather’s previous trip to Japan, one that featured both combatants at around the same weight.
8. FLOYD MAYWEATHER v TENSHIN NASUKAWA
December 31, 2018 – Saitama, Japan
Mayweather’s first exhibition was this rout of kickboxer Nasukawa.
This was also set for a mere three rounds, but didn’t even last one.
Nasukawa, at just 20 years old, boasted glittering stats of 30-0 in kickboxing, but this counted for nought in the two-limbed environment.
It was a massacre, featuring three knockdowns in less than two minutes as Mayweather sought to make a point.
What that point was against a man almost 20lb lighter and with no track record in his sport was not entirely clear, though.
But the question remains as to why Mayweather went for the kill against his two Japanese opponents when he has clearly propped up his other exhibition foes.
7. DAVID HAYE v JOE FOURNIER
September 11, 2021 – Hollywood, Florida
Haye and Fournier were friends and had anecdotally drawn up a plan for this fight while holidaying together.
It was scheduled as an exhibition on the undercard of Evander Holyfield v Vitor Belfort (more on that later), but Fournier talked it up as a real contest, promising to win in the first round.
Instead it was he who was dropped by a jab in the opening session.
Having established quickly and easily that he was by far the superior fighter, Haye then took it easy on his pal – a businessman who’d only ever dabbled in boxing.
A tedious sparring session then played out over eight rounds as Fournier looked gunshy and Haye stayed in first gear.
Haye, 41, used the exposure to call for a real fight with Tyson Fury, but if he thought this would be a vehicle to generate excitement, it had quite the opposite effect.
6. FLOYD MAYWEATHER v DEJI
November 13, 2022 – Dubai, UAE
He wasn’t in Japan, but Mayweather scored a finish in his most recent exhibition – against a guy who boasted a sparse losing record of 1-3 even in “influencer boxing” and whose biggest claim to fame was being the brother of KSI.
Mayweather, 45, could clearly have ended this in seconds, but graciously allowed Deji six and a bit rounds under the spotlight.
That Deji still couldn’t make it to the end of this scheduled eight-rounder even though he was being blatantly carried showed what a pointless mismatch it was.
5. FLOYD MAYWEATHER v LOGAN PAUL
June 6, 2021 – Miami, Florida
The biggest exhibition of them all, this relied heavily on both men’s celebrity status in commanding a $49.99 viewing fee and an estimated million buys.
It can’t possibly have had anything to do with the sporting spectacle of putting the famously 50-0 Mayweather in against a Youtuber who’d had two boxing matches in his life – one of them amateur – and won neither.
Boxing fans hoped Mayweather would “do a Tenshin” on Paul and put an end to the exhibition circus, but he was smarter than that, knowing exhibitions are easy money and creating a facade of competitiveness would mean he’d be asked to do more of them.
Consequently, Mayweather clearly carried the Youtuber through eight dull rounds to the final bell.
4. MIKE TYSON v ROY JONES
November 28, 2020 – Los Angeles, California
While exhibitions have been around as long as the sport, and sometimes are a necessity (for example, to fill a slot on a bill when a fight falls through and an alternative can’t be found), it was Tyson and Jones who kickstarted the current trend for ancient ex-pros commanding big money for play-fighting.
The two fiftysomethings and the promoters deliberately blurred the lines about what might happen in the ring. The rule set was not made clear, though the boxers insisted they would be fighting for real.
Younger fans seduced by Youtube highlights of Tyson and Jones in their prime joined older fans desperate for a nostalgia hit as they tuned in out of curiosity, only to watch Tyson pull his punches against a Jones so shot that he probably couldn’t have gone hard even if he’d intended to.
Aesthetically, it was a dud. But economically, it was a blockbuster.
And that’s why we’re in this position today.
3. FLOYD MAYWEATHER v DON MOORE
May 21, 2022 – Abu Dhabi, UAE
The only thing interesting about this match when it was announced was its setting – Mayweather and Moore were to duel on the helipad of the world’s tallest hotel, the Burj al-Arab, 700 feet over the Persian Gulf in Dubai.
Regardless of what happened between the ropes, it would have been a spectacular sight to behold. But the bout was first postponed by a week following the death of UAE president Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan president, and then moved to a standard indoor sports venue.
Removed of its amazing backdrop, this had no selling point whatsoever – not even that of celebrity. Moore was a genuine boxer, at least, but one best known as a long-time sparring partner of Mayweather.
Consequently, they were friends, and Floyd, despite scoring a knockdown, made sure his pal made it to the final bell.
2. JULIO CESAR CHAVEZ v HECTOR CAMACHO JR
June 19, 2021 – Guadalajara, Mexico
Similar to Hatton’s recent outing, Chavez just wanted to enjoy the sensation of being in the ring again, and his fans were happy to let him to do so.
Chavez has actually engaged in a few exhibitions over the years, but this one generated more publicity due to the family history involved – Chavez having beaten Camacho’s father, Hector Sr, in 1992.
The young (well, 42-year-old) Hector promised to gain revenge.
This one started off with both men wearing large headguards, and was fought at an intensity typical of the genre (ie very little), though that’s fair enough given Chavez was 58 years old.
But rather than just go through the motions and have a four-round move-about, the pair decided (obviously in advance) to go the pro wrestling route and fake some bad-tempered after-the-bell brawling, followed by the headguards being torn off and Chavez’s exaggerated demands for the gloves to be removed, too (they weren’t).
You might say it was all fun and games, but it was a strange mid-fight change of direction that simply fell flat.
1. EVANDER HOLYFIELD v VITOR BELFORT
September 11, 2021 – Hollywood, Florida
If the main complaint about exhibitions is that they are not real fights (Mayweather’s Japanese excursions aside), this was a harrowing example of what can happen when somebody decides to treat one as such – and the man on the receiving end is nearly 59 years old.
Holyfield stepped in at short notice to face mixed martial artist Belfort, but while Mayweather has shown a boxer typically beats a fighter from another sport in a boxing match, Holyfield was just too old and too shot to be fighting under any circumstances.
Belfort went hard from the start, Holyfield was ungainly and rusty, and the younger man (even at 44) simply tore through him.
It was an awful spectacle watching a proud warrior like Holyfield being brushed aside so quickly and violently and, given his age and condition, it never would have been allowed as a licensed fight.
It was a sad irony that the worst exhibition match of them all was the realest one.
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