With the 300th UFC pay-per-view event wrapped up, there is no doubt that the promotion has solidified its status in combat sports as a force to be reckoned with, maybe even surpassing boxing. As such, comedian and Joe Rogan‘s friend Andrew Schulz has ideated that boxing legend Floyd Mayweather may not have been as big as he is if he had been active as a boxer in the current times.

There are hardly any other boxers who have collected as many accolades as Floyd Mayweather. He retired after 50 professional fights and never lost even once. He even made billions of dollars in earnings as a fighter and has been spotted flaunting his wealth on several occasions. But Andrew Schulz doesn’t think he would be as relevant today as he was back when boxing reigned supreme.

Would Floyd Mayweather have struggled to compete against Dana White’s UFC?

During a recent episode of ‘Flagrant’, host Andrew Schulz seemed amazed at what went down at UFC 300. Given how successful and popular Dana White‘s promotion has become with boxing taking the backseat, the comedian had doubts about Floyd Mayweather becoming the big star he is after all his achievements if he had fought in modern times, where fight fans prefer MMA more than boxing.

Schulz said, “I love Floyd, right? Floyd is my favorite… I don’t know if Floyd is close to this big [as a boxer] if he was around at this time… the fans knowing they could go watch UFC… I don’t know if they’re signing up to watch him perfectly defend and outpoint his opponent.”

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Andrew Schulz gave Floyd Mayweather his dues by claiming that he would be a dominant fighter, regardless of the era he fought in. However, in the ever-growing space of MMA, where fans can witness some of the most brutal fights, he doubts that ‘Money’ would be able to compete against the product that UFC will put out for the fans.

“I don’t know if he’d be as big. He would be as dominant without a doubt… I wonder if he’d change his style and take more risks specifically to compete with what was going on with the UFC.” Besides, the ‘Flagrant’ host also explained the reason behind his take on Mayweather’s success as a fighter in modern times.

UFC fighters take more risks than boxers, claims Andrew Schulz

Dana White mentioned during the UFC 300 post-fight pressers that he sells “holy sh*t moments” for a living, which is an ode to the action that fans witnessed at UFC 300. But all the fights on the card did not reach the same level of action, and one of them was Aljamain Sterling‘s fight against Calvin Kattar.

Andrew Schulz claimed that despite the technical prowess of ‘Funk Master’, the fans did not make as much noise as they did for the other fights, which is because they are accustomed to watching fights with much more explosiveness, something that the sport of boxing lacks.

“He’s [Aljamain Sterling] in a tricky situation where he’s like, ‘This is how I know I can beat these guys, but if I want to make the most money, I’m gonna have to take more risks and probably change certain aspects of my style’… because he knows the culture of the UFC and what the fans want… boxing did not have that,” Schulz further stated.

As such, the 40-year-old also added that now that the UFC is bigger than ever, more fans are getting drawn towards it. This is because when boxing was the most popular combat sport, there was not much of a choice for viewers, which is no longer the case. “Boxing was… ‘Imma stick to a move, not get touched, and then win the belt, and then somebody gotta try to get the belt from me. And since there was nothing else for us to watch in terms of fight sports that we cared about, we just paid for it,” Andrew Schulz added.

It would be unwise to claim that boxing is not as big of a sport as MMA. To this day, boxers still make more than most UFC fighters. Though there is a growth in popularity, that has not had much of an effect on the payouts of the fighters. It remains to be seen if the growth of the UFC goes hand in hand with what the fighters make from each fight in the future.