Earlier this month, news surfaced of a New Year’s Eve bout between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and undefeated kickboxer, Tenshin Nasukawa, set to kick off at the Satiama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, as part of the Rizin Fighting Federation.
However, just days later, after fans criticized the Pretty Boy for risking his perfect record, Mayweather revealed that he “never agreed to an official bout” with the kickboxing sensation. “In fact,” he wrote, “with all due respect, I have never heard of him until this recent trip to Japan.”
“Ultimately, I was asked to participate in a 9 minute exhibition of 3 rounds with an opponent selected by the “Rizen Fighting Federation,” Mayweather wrote on Instagram. “What I was originally informed of by Brent Johnson of “One Entertainment” was that this was to be an exhibition put on for a small group of wealthy spectators for a very large fee. This exhibition was previously arranged as a “Special Bout” purely for entertainment purposes with no intentions of being represented as an official fight card nor televised worldwide.”
But now, it appears the fight is back on, but on a much smaller scale than previously promoted.
On Wednesday, Mayweather opened up about the bout, as well as the confusion surrounding the would-be historic match up.
“I went over there, it happened to be a huge press conference so then of course, I didn’t want to throw a lot of my people under the bus so I basically told them, ‘this is not going to work out,” Mayweather told TMZ of the mixup, adding that it was only supposed to be a small nine-minute exhibition – the highest paid exhibition ever, of course.
“Just for promoting this event, so far, I made seven-figures, just talking about it,” he said, adding that it isn’t even for the necessity of money. “I’m far from hurting for money, I got a ton of money.”
As for the rules of the exhibition, if, in fact, it goes down. Mayweather says there will be no kicking.
“Rules? It’s gonna be a little boxing exhibition. No kicking,” Mayweather told TMZ. “I’m moving around with the guy for 9 minutes,” he said. “It’s a no brainer. Just because I’m retired from boxing, I still make appearances worldwide and make a ton of money.”
