FLOYD MAYWEATHER JR will now seemingly not fight 20-year-old kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa in Tokyo on New Year’s Eve after the former pound-for-pound boxing star was “blindsided by the arrangements” that he alleges were made without his “consent nor approval.”
Mayweather, over twice Nasukawa’s age at 41, had originally agreed to square off with the red-hot Japanese combat sports prodigy under the banner of Japan-based mixed martial arts promoters RIZIN, although the rules for their fight were never specified.
The Grand Rapids native posted a teaser photo on his Instagram feed at the weekend which showed him wearing kickboxing gloves.
However, in a separate post released on the same platform this evening, the former five-weight boxing world champion claimed to have been utterly misled by organisers, appearing to withdraw from the bout and apologising to his fans for the mix-up — particularly those who travelled to the press conference in the Japanese capital.
“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,” read a statement released on Mayweather’s Instagram account.
“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.”
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