Floyd Mayweather’s exhibition Sunday night didn’t resemble his first four exhibitions, let alone any of his 50 professional prizefights.
The legendary five-division champion clearly took it easy on social media star Deji Olatunji during their eight-round exhibition at Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai. London’s Olatunji, a brother of KSI, took the glorified sparring session seriously, but the inexperienced southpaw obviously couldn’t compete with even a 45-year-old Mayweather.
Mayweather showboated and toyed with the overmatched 25-year-old YouTube sensation until he decided to end it in the sixth round. Mayweather mostly fought with his hands down, easily slipped the vast majority of Olatunji’s punch attempts and didn’t put much force on most of his punches because he wasn’t trying to hurt Olatunji until he let his hands go in the sixth round.
Referee Kenny Bayless stepped between them late in the sixth round to stop the bout because Mayweather landed unanswered punches.
The Hall-of-Fame fighter danced between rounds, laughed and joked during much of the two-minute rounds and clearly wasn’t worried about anything Olatunji threw back at him. Whenever inclined, Mayweather landed at will on Olatunji’s body and head.
Mayweather opened up on Olatunji as soon as the sixth round started, when he finally felt like knocking out Olatunji.
For Mayweather, their scheduled eight-rounder was just another stop on a world tour.
Seven weeks earlier, Mayweather stopped Japanese mixed martial artist Mikuru Asakura at the end of the second round of their three-round exhibition in Saitama, Japan. Mayweather clearly took that exhibition September 24 more seriously than Sunday night.
Mayweather’s win against Olatunji was his fifth in exhibitions since the Grand Rapids, Michigan native retired from professional boxing following his 10th-round stoppage of UFC superstar Conor McGregor in a 12-round, 154-pound boxing match in August 2017 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Mayweather (50-0, 27 KOs) hasn’t fought an experienced boxer in more than seven years, not since he out-pointed former WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto in September 2015 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
–boxingscene.com
