Floyd Mayweather has burst the bubble on those eager to see him in a potential special rules bout later this year.
RIZIN FF made a massive announcement earlier this week that the 50-0 boxing legend would take on Japanese kickboxing sensation Tenshin Nasukawa in a “special” fight on New Year’s Eve at the famous Saitama Super Arena.
Not so fast.
Mayweather (and presumably his team) released a lengthy statement on Instagram announcing that not only did he not agree to face Tenshin, but claims that RIZIN completely caught him off guard with their plans for him.
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 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. In fact (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”.
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.
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. I am a retired boxer that earns an unprecedented amount of money, globally, for appearances, speaking engagements and occasional small exhibitions.
So a fight that was announced but had no details on ruleset or weight class turned out to be hogwash, and now Mayweather alleges that RIZIN essentially conned him. The press conference was real, but the matchup was fictitious.
Now we can go back to what we are really itching to talk about, the date of the Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao rematch.
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