Floyd Mayweather turned a lot of heads when it was announced he’d be fighting Tenshin Nasukawa in RIZIN. However, that didn’t last long, as Mayweather soon backtracked on the announcement, claiming to have been misled by the Rizin promotion. Mayweather is arguably the biggest combat sports star of all time.
He holds several pay-per-view (PPV) records and holds a 50-0 undefeated boxing record. His fights with Manny Pacquiao and Conor McGregor are some of the biggest of all time. However, with the recent retraction of the announcement of his fight with Nasukawa, one MMA pundit believes Mayweather damaged his brand.
Former UFC light heavyweight and middleweight title challenger Chael Sonnen took to his show with Ariel Helwani, “Ariel and The Bad Guy,” to comment on the matter. Sonnen believes that Mayweather’s incident with Rizin damages the “Money” brand (via MMA Fighting):
“Huge miss here by Floyd Mayweather,” Sonnen said. “He has brought down his brand. Very normal trajectory of a fighter’s career: you start out fighting at the YMCA, you move on to the dog park, you get into a coliseum, on your way out you go back to the YMCA, and then you finish up at the dog park.
“That is what this appeared to be for Floyd from jump street.”
What do you think about Sonnen’s comments regarding Mayweather?
