The Panther Newspaper

View Original

Opinion | Please, Mayweather, we can’t let another Paul win

Joe Perrino, Sports Editor

I don’t like the Paul brothers.

That’s no bold statement. Logan Paul filmed and posted a dead body in Aokigahara, a “suicide forest” in Japan, and Jake Paul used Black Lives Matter protests as an outlet to shamelessly riot and vandalize property.

They’re pretty widely regarded as pieces of crap. I know one person who supports Logan and no one that likes Jake. But despite the hate, these little gnats continue to buzz their way into relevancy just to irritate the public. 

Take Jake, for example. No one asked him to box. But here he is, fighting retired UFC fighters and basketball players three to four inches shorter than him. Super impressive, Jake. Think about the extra reach and length he has on those competitors; it's no wonder he knocked both of them out. It wasn’t even a challenge.

Now, in the latest depressing development of postmodern capitalism, his brother Logan will enter the ring June 6 against one of the greatest boxers of all time, Floyd Mayweather — a massive jerk who has repeatedly committed domestic violence — at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida.

This is probably all a publicity stunt: annoying YouTuber versus annoying boxer convict. It’s ridiculous how large social media has become. This would be like if fellow prick YouTuber David Dobrik took batting practice for a month and then took an at-bat against Aroldis Chapman.

All odds say Mayweather beats the crap out of this guy. But I have this little suspicion in the back of my mind that it won’t go as planned.

Logan stands 6’2. His counterpart Mayweather is 5’8. Yes, Mayweather has never lost against his 43 wins. Yes, 26 of those victories were knockouts. But the man is 44 years old. 

His last fight was against MMA star Connor McGregor in 2017, where Mayweather smoked McGregor. I’m hoping for a similar outcome next month.

Mayweather is trash himself, yes. But we, as a society, need him to win. We need to banish the Paul brothers back to Ohio, and celebrate their loss rather than a Mayweather victory.

We can’t have children looking up to these clowns. Growing up, the athletic role models I had were a bunch of unpleasant baseball players doing steroids. But then, a superhuman named LeBron James came in and said, “Hey guys, I’m a super wholesome kid from a humble background, and I happen to be a monster on the basketball court.” 

Good, hard-working people need to be at the forefront of sports for kids to look at and say, “I want to be like that.” We can’t have a couple egotistical maniacs being the face of athletics for our new generation.

We’ve been fortunate enough to get sports and fights and high-quality entertainment experiences back after a long hiatus. But if another Paul wins, we can throw all that fortune out the window.