The world of mixed martial arts and combat sports in general has its share of whacky characters and you never know what’s going to happen one day to the next. Case in point: Boxing great Floyd Mayweather just took part in a RIZIN press conference in Japan a few days ago where they announced he would be fighting young kickboxing phenom Tenshin Nasukawa on New Year’s Eve. But now that Floyd is back on U.S. soil he says the whole thing was a big misunderstanding and he never agreed to fight Nasukawa on the RIZIN card. Say what? That’s right. Despite fielding questions from media and taking pictures with Nasukawa for more than an hour, it was somehow all just a big misunderstanding.
Here’s Floyd’s full statement:
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.
Ah does that mean there’s still hope for that Floyd Mayweather vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov bout we were all hoping for?