Mayweather in denial

Boxing: Floyd Mayweather said yesterday he never agreed to come out of retirement to fight a Japanese kickboxer on New Year’s Eve and was blindsided when the event was announced this week at a news conference he attended in Tokyo.

Mayweather said on his Instagram account he only agreed to a threeround exhibition in front of a small group of wealthy spectators for a large fee with no intention of it being represented as an official fight card or televised worldwide.

‘‘Once I arrived to the press conference, my team and I were completely derailed by the new direction this event was going,’’ Mayweather wrote. — Reuters