Floyd Mayweather Jake Paul praise raises eyebrows

Floyd Mayweather still knows exactly where the oxygen is.

Ask him about the fighters he enjoys now, and the safe route is obvious: salute the technicians, mention the champions, keep the old guard happy. Mayweather did some of that. Then he swerved into the lane boxing purists love to hate, placing Jake Paul among the names he is currently happy to watch. For a retired great who has spent years guarding boxing’s velvet rope, that is not a throwaway compliment.

The timing gives it bite. Mayweather’s planned September return against Manny Pacquiao has been scrapped, and recent talk around his finances has kept his name in the news for reasons far removed from a clean right hand. Paul, meanwhile, remains the sport’s most divisive attention broker: not a traditional contender, not a normal prospect, but undeniably a fighter who keeps pulling mainstream eyeballs into boxing’s orbit.

Floyd Mayweather backs Jake Paul’s boxing hustle

Mayweather was asked by Come and Talk 2 Me to list fighters from the current scene who catch his eye. He pointed to David Benavidez, Keyshawn Davis, Shakur Stevenson and Devin Haney, while also giving credit to talent from Japan. That is a serious spread: pressure, polish, speed, Olympic schooling and elite craft all represented in a few names.

Then came Paul. Mayweather did not frame the YouTuber-turned-boxer as the best in the sport, nor did he pretend the Ohio native belongs beside the pound-for-pound class on résumé. His praise was aimed at the commercial instincts, the noise, the ability to turn skepticism into paydays. The short version was blunt: “I like Jake Paul’s hustle.” From Mayweather, a fighter who built a second career around controlling the event as much as the opponent, that line lands differently.

Why Mayweather’s Jake Paul comment carries extra weight

Mayweather has not always sounded charitable about Paul’s place in boxing. That is why the shift stands out. It is less an endorsement of Paul as a title-level boxer than an acknowledgement that the influencer fight economy has become too large to dismiss with a shrug. Mayweather understands leverage better than almost anyone in combat sports history, and Paul’s entire project is leverage: opponent selection, platform control, social heat and the willingness to take abuse from boxing lifers while the checks clear.

• Mayweather named Paul while discussing active fighters he likes watching.
• He also mentioned Benavidez, Davis, Stevenson, Haney and Japanese talent.
• Mayweather’s proposed September bout with Pacquiao has been canceled.
• Paul last fought Anthony Joshua in December, according to the source material.

Could Floyd Mayweather and Jake Paul become a real fight business story?

The natural question is whether praise is just praise, or the first little breadcrumb toward another spectacle. Mayweather has already made exhibition boxing feel like a separate economy, and Paul has spent years proving that traditional sporting logic is not required to sell a fight. If there is money in the overlap, both men know where the door is.

There are limits, of course. Mayweather is an all-time defensive genius with a 50-0 professional record; Paul is a crossover act who has improved, marketed himself brilliantly and still carries the baggage that comes with his route into boxing. The stakes would not be rankings or belts. They would be attention, negotiation power and another test of whether boxing’s celebrity wing can keep borrowing credibility from legends without needing the normal contender ladder. For the wider combat sports audience, that is the uncomfortable part: the loudest fights are not always the most meaningful ones, but they can still shape what promoters chase next.

Mayweather’s comment will annoy purists because it treats Paul as part of the modern boxing conversation rather than a sideshow parked outside it. That irritation is understandable, but it misses the obvious: Mayweather did not build his empire by ignoring what sells. His canceled Pacquiao date leaves him without that September comeback, and Paul remains one of boxing’s most bankable non-champions in 2026.