Over the weekend, former world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. went the distance with John Gotti III in an eight-round exhibition fight on Saturday night in Mexico City.

This leaves the question: are these ‘fights’ are bad for boxing?

Mayweather isn’t anywhere near the ‘pretty boy’ nickname he received early in his boxing career. The defensive-minded fighter who wasn’t afraid to put himself in harms way to get the knockout very much found himself successful. The quick reflexes, shoulder roll, counter punching, strong job he possessed isn’t the same as it once was, therefore, fans aren’t getting the same quality of boxing we have saw through his professional fighting career. Floyd is well aware of this because his last couple of exhibitions haven’t been against any real threats that can cause true harm. Once again, this makes ‘Money Mayweather’ in another position to make profit without getting in real harm.

As a boxing fan, I won’t say Floyd is cheating the fans by any means. He shows up, he throws punches, he doesn’t run, and he seems to really try and actually fight his opponents. But when looking at how the boxing world is looking right now with the younger guys, I believe these fights to be influential to other fighters.

Look at Logan and Jake Paul, they fight in exhibitions. By no means will I say either brother doesn’t take the craft serious, but they don’t put themselves against any real champions or contenders, they know better. Perhaps one day they do, but until then, they’ve taken the Mayweather route in doing fights that have some sort of entertainment factor only on the notoriety of the A-side fighter. I can’t say I’m completely mad at the direction, but as a boxing fan who wants to see the best fighters go against each other, it takes some steam away from the fights we actually want to see.

Should any weight be on Mayweather shoulders to still be carrying the state of boxing? No. However, the reality is that the promotion for fights haven’t been the same. The pay-per-view buys aren’t as high as when Floyd fought. Some of that is due to the era we live in now with bootlegging fights online, but the fact still remains.

The days of seeing Floyd Mayweather go up against actual tough opponents are over. He’s collecting money at whatever streaming service will pay him to fight a guy who doesn’t stand a chance against a fighter who’s been training his entire life. We should accept that. The state of boxing isn’t hurt by Floyd’s fights.