MONEY FOR NOTHING: Organizers flog ticket as small crowd shows up for Floyd Mayweather vs Aaron Chalmers
LONDON, ENGLAND: Floyd Mayweather has responded after footage from his exhibition bout with Aaron Chalmers showed a near-empty O2 Arena. The 46-year-old boxing legend made his hotly anticipated debut appearance in a UK ring on Saturday, February 25, but failed to garner significant interest in the match.
The 50-0 former champion of the world challenged former Geordie Shore and British reality TV star Chalmers but appeared to take the fight rather casually as he toyed with his opponent for the majority of the eight-round bout. The unbeaten boxer has notably taken part in a series of lucrative exhibition fights since his retirement in 2017.
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Poor attendance
The event -- titled 'Royal Pain' -- was quite a bit delayed due to the lackluster attendance at the start of the proceedings, coupled with reports of thousands of unsold tickets at the historic arena. Furthermore, broadcasters added to the farcical feeling of the event as they did not appear to know the bout was eight rounds and not six. Mayweather fought in the UK for the first time and said he had come to "entertain the people," but the poor turnout suggested the event hadn't drawn considerable interest in the first place.
Not exactly a sellout crowd for Floyd Mayweather's UK exhibition fight vs Aaron Chalmers at the O2 Arena tonight… pic.twitter.com/I14kbq4KwQ
— Michael Benson (@MichaelBensonn) February 25, 2023
In addition to the swathes of empty seats, the seat-filler website ShowFilmFirst was still trying to sell tickets for as little as £4.95 (~$6) just hours out from the bout, according to the Daily Mail. Promoters tried to save face as they tried to fill out the arena despite an obvious lack of interest in the fight among the British boxing public. The broadcaster, Zeus TV, also appeared to zoom in on just the fighters during the ring walk and did not pan across the crowd. However, it is unclear if this was done in fear of revealing the relatively empty arena, per the newspaper.
Floyd Mayweather vs Aaron Chalmers shambles with O2 Arena almost emptyhttps://t.co/zVVKz95P4o pic.twitter.com/R6egiCldhb
— Scottish Sun Sport (@scotsunsport) February 25, 2023
'I don't point fingers'
Mayweather addressed the poor attendance in his post-fight press conference. "We did this in one month - not even four weeks," he said. "I think the tickets should've went on sale a lot faster. My new team is still learning. I have got to take my hat off to them, it's not their fault. It's just when we fight in the US, as soon as we announce the fight, tickets are on sale. Here, we announced the fight and the tickets didn't go on sale until a week or two weeks later." The former boxing world champion added, "I don't point fingers. We work together as a team. When you buy tickets over here, you don't really want to spend money. In America, we don't mind spending money."
Nonetheless, Mayweather hailed his UK fans as "unbelievable" just moments after the bout ended. "I would like to thank all the fans in the UK. The fans are unbelievable," he said. "This guy [Chalmers] is tough as nails, we had a chance to come together. I came to entertain the people and I’m glad I came." Meanwhile, Chalmers gushed that he would tell his "grandkids" about the once-in-a-lifetime experience. "He caught us clean on the chin in the second round and it did wake me up a lot, but he’s just unbelievable. That’s one to tell the grandkids," he said. "We got as many sparring partners in but you can’t get anyone in to do what Floyd does. The win for me was to get to the eighth round and that’s what I did. Thanks for Floyd and his team I’m now in the mix for KSI and Jake Paul."
