As it turns out, Floyd Mayweather Jr. will not be fighting Japanese kickboxing Tenshin Nasukawa on New Year’s Eve, or at least the bout is extremely unlikely after the undefeated boxer posted on Instagram that he was “blindsided” by the Rizin FF press conference and the size of the event that was ultimately announced.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. says he never agreed to face undefeated kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa
Mayweather says he was blindsided by the scale of the bout that was announced when he arrived in Japan, and that he thought he was signing on for a much smaller special exhibition bout.
Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images
RIZIN FF announced in a live streaming press conference that Mayweather and the undefeated kickboxer had agreed to fight at the Saitama Super Arena on New Year’s Eve, though details like the rules of the bout were not announced. The two sides were said to have agreed to some kind of bout, but Mayweather claims he had agreed to “participate in a nine-minute exhibition of three rounds with an opponent selected by the Rizen Fighting Federation.”
Mayweather went on to say that he was supposed to be putting on “an exhibition for a small group of wealthy spectators for a very large fee,” and that the bout was to be “purely for entertainment purposes.” Further, he said that he did not know who Nasukawa was before he arrived in Japan.
The boxer also went on to apologize to his fans for “the very misleading information that was announced during this press conference and I can assure you that I too was completely blindsided by the arrangements that were being made without my consent nor approval.”
This certainly makes more sense than the original suggested bout — there was little reason for Mayweather to agree to fight somebody so dangerous, especially if kicks were allowed in whatever ruleset would have been established. Mayweather is certainly one of the best boxers in the history of the sport, but the 20-year-old Nasukawa is dangerous everywhere and had everything to gain while there was little incentive beyond a payday for Mayweather.
And it always seemed unlikely that Mayweather, who has all the power in negotiations with the promotion, would agree to participate in anything other than a boxing match. His terms were always going to be what dictated this kind of bout, and it would not be a smart decision to face Nasukawa in anything other than full-size boxing gloves with kicks disallowed.
Nasukawa is 27-0 as a kickboxer at just 20 years old, with 21 of his victories by knockout. His highlight wins include a knockout of Amnat Ruenroeng and, most recently, a decision win over Kyoji Horiguchi.
Mayweather is 50-0 as a professional boxer, with his most recent win being over Conor McGregor. He has 27 knockouts, including the one over McGregor.
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