Floyd Mayweather now denies he will fight unknown Japanese kickboxer

by John Dennen

JUST when you thought Floyd Mayweather was going to return to the ring, to fight unknown Japanese kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa on December 31 in Saitama, with the actual rules yet to be determined, it turns out the actual bout is still to be determined. Mayweather now insists it is not going to happen.

The proposition was unusual. Nasukawa fights at featherweight, Mayweather is a welterweight, and it seemed that only a star name could tempt the American out of retirement.

That now appears to be the case. Rather than fight Nasukawa in an official contest for the Rizen Fighting Federation, Mayweather is denying that any such contest is going to take place.

“Now that I am back on U.S. soil after a long and disappointing trip to Tokyo, I now have the time to address you, my fans and the media in regard to the upcoming event on December 31 that was recently announced,” he said. “First and foremost, I want it to be clear that I, Floyd Mayweather, never agreed to an official bout with Tenshin Nasukawa. In fact (with all due respect) I have never heard of him until this recent trip to Japan.”

Mayweather claims that he was considering a short exhibition, that wouldn’t necessarily have been available to the general public.

“Ultimately, I was asked to participate in a nine-minute exhibition of three rounds with an opponent selected by the “Rizen Fighting Federation”. 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.”

So the press conference he appeared in alongside Nasukawa apparently caught Mayweather off guard. He explains, “Once I arrived to the press conference, my team and I were completely derailed by the new direction this event was going and we should have put a stop to it immediately. I want to sincerely apologize to my 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. For the sake of the several fans and attendees that flew in from all parts of the world to attend this past press conference, I was hesitant to create a huge disturbance by combating what was being said and for that I am truly sorry.”

Mayweather insists he doesn’t need to come back to combat sport, in any official capacity. He added, “I am a retired boxer that earns an unprecedented amount of money, globally, for appearances, speaking engagements and occasional small exhibitions.”