Floyd Mayweather’s return to action was official for less than three days. On Wednesday, the 41-year old undefeated boxer released a statement walking back a fight that was announced this past weekend against 20-year old kickboxing sensation Tenshin Nasukawa at RIZIN 14 in Japan on Dec. 31.
The surprise announcement happened during a press conference in Japan where Mayweather appeared alongside Nasukawa except there were a lot of inconsistencies with the actual fight that was being advertised.
Perhaps the biggest issue was a mysterious rule set for the proposed fight that was never determined despite the matchup being announced.
Now Mayweather is refuting that he ever actually agreed to a fight but rather just an exhibition that was expected to take place in front of some wealthy folks willing to pay for his audience.
“First and foremost, I want it to be clear that I, Floyd Mayweather, never agreed to an official bout with Tenshin Nasukawa,” Mayweather wrote on Instagram. “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.”
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Obviously the promoters behind RIZIN had other ideas and the fight was certainly promoted as if it was going to be an actual contest between Mayweather and Nasukawa.
Now it seems Mayweather’s short lived plans to fight in Japan have been scrapped.
“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,” Mayweather said. “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.”
RIZIN has yet to make any statement following Mayweather declaring that he’s no longer participating in the event.
