Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Deji was the first Metaverse boxing match

Floyd Mayweather and Deji made history in their exhibition fight last month.

‘Money’ retired from professional boxing in 2017 following a knockout win over Conor McGregor but has stayed active in the exhibition scene.

Last month on DAZN pay-per-view, the former champion made his return in another exhibition to face Deji. The YouTuber-turned-boxer is 1-0 as a professional boxer, having defeated Fousey Erakat by knockout in his August debut.

As far as the fight itself goes, it was Floyd Mayweather dominating as expected. The former champion easily broke down ‘The Tank’ en route to a sixth-round stoppage.

While the contest was just an exhibition, the pair made history last month in Dubai. The card was the first ever boxing event to be streamed in the metaverse.

While it wasn’t highly publicized at the time, the bout was available to view in the metaverse. Fans were able to walk around the venue, as well as view alternate camera angles for the event. The price to view the card in the metaverse was only $14.99, the same as the traditional broadcast on DAZN.

While numbers aren’t available for how many fans chose to view the fight in the metaverse, the event seemed to be a success.


Floyd Mayweather reveals plans to buy an NBA franchise

Outside of the boxing ring, Floyd Mayweather is staying busy.

Even though he’s retired, ‘Money’ is still active, but outside the ring. He occasionally appears in the ring, albeit in an exhibition capacity.

However, the former champion is much more involved in the business side of things these days. Mayweather promotes fights under his ‘Mayweather Promotions’ branding and is also a successful real estate investor.

However, Floyd Mayweather recently set his sights on his biggest investment yet: buying an NBA franchise. During a recent public event, the former boxer revealed his plans to buy a team and suggested Seattle and Las Vegas as possible cities for a new franchise.

Announcing his plans, Mayweather stated:

“It could be the Vegas franchise. It could be the Seattle franchise or I could be buying a franchise that’s already up and running. So the first offer, we offered them a little over $2 billion for majority ownership. Do I have it? Absolutely, I have it, but it didn’t happen overnight. It didn’t happen overnight. It’s a lot when you have so many different businesses all around the world. It’s a lot.”

Edited by Nicolaas Ackermann