Mayweather ducks out of New Year’s Eve bout
Fighter says he thought match was an exhibition
Floyd Mayweather revealed Wednesday that he never agreed to a New Year’s Eve bout in Japan against kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa.
The retired boxing superstar strongly implied in a lengthy Instagram post that the three-round exhibition was called off because he was “blindsided” in the direction Rizin Fighting Federation wanted to execute the event.
“Now that I am back on U.S. soil after a long and disappointing trip to Tokyo,” Mayweather’s social media post started. “I now have time to address you, my fans and the media in regards to the upcoming event on December 31st that was recently announced. First and foremost, I want it to be clear that I, Floyd Mayweather, never agreed to an official bout with Tenshin Nasukawa.”
Mayweather, 41, attended a news conference Sunday in Tokyo to announce the event with the Japanese mixed martial arts promotional company. The rules and the weight class for the bout were not released at the time.
Mayweather said the exhibition was “purely for entertainment purposes” and not an official sanctioned bout for television. He also revealed that only a small group of “wealthy spectators” would be allowed to attend “for a very large fee.”
“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,” Mayweather’s post went on to say. “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.”
Mayweather said he agreed to appear at the news conference because he didn’t want to create a disturbance. On that day, Mayweather praised Rizin and Nasukawa and said he wanted to create a long-term relationship with the Japanese promoter.
This isn’t Mayweather’s first experiment with an MMA promotional company. Last year, Mayweather defeated UFC superstar Conor Mcgregor at T-mobile in a sanctioned boxing bout to improve his record to 50-0.
Contact Gilbert Manzano at gmanzano@reviewjournal.com. Follow @Gmanzano24 on Twitter.