Floyd Mayweather Denies Agreeing to Official Bout vs. Tenshin Nasukawa at Rizin 14
Well, that didn’t take long.
Advertisement
“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 [Dec. 31] that was recently announced,” Mayweather wrote on Instagram. “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 nine-minute exhibition
of [three] rounds with an opponent selected by the “[Rizin]
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.”
While the fight was announced on Sunday, a weight class and rule set for the bout were not revealed. At the time, Mayweather said, “I just want to entertain” and sounded confident that his team and Rizin would come to terms. In his post, however, Mayweather says he felt “blindsided” by the proceedings at the press conference on Sunday.
“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 wrote. “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.”
Mayweather announced his retirement from boxing for a second time following a 10th round stoppage of Conor McGregor in a bout in August 2017. That victory improved Mayweather’s career mark in the Sweet Science to 50-0. However, there have been rumblings that “Money” is angling for a rematch with Manny Pacquiao somewhere down the road. For now, Mayweather is still calling himself retired.
“I am a retired boxer that earns an unprecedented amount of money, globally, for appearances, speaking engagements and occasional small exhibitions,” he wrote.
Related Articles
