Yes, you read that right. Despite appearing at a press conference in Tokyo promoting a fight with Tenshin Nasukawa, Floyd Mayweather has denied that the fight will take place.
He took to his Instagram, saying this:
“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 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.”
The critical points Floyd touches on are as follows.
- Claims he was asked by RIZIN to do a 3×3 exhibition bout.
- Claims the bout was never supposed to be televised.
- Claims he was ‘blindsided’ at press conference, but didn’t want to make a scene.
- Claims it was to be put on for a group of wealthy spectators for a large fee, no fans.
Now, no one can pick apart these claims due to no one outside of Floyd’s team and RIZIN knowing the actual arrangements.
However, I’m sure this is not the end of what we will hear in regards to Floyd Mayweather and RIZIN Fighting Federation.
With this fight reportedly scrapped, RIZIN 14 has no bouts currently announced for December 31. It will be interesting to see how RIZIN handles the situation considering the initial tickets sold out following the Tenshin vs. Mayweather announcement. How will they salvage this?
