After Floyd Mayweather shocked the world by announcing he would fight a young undefeated kickboxer named Tenshin Nasukawa on December 31 at a surprise press conference with Japanese MMA organization RIZIN, he has now claimed the promotional company blindsided him.
Since landing back in the United States, the undefeated pay-per-view boxing star had some time to fully think about the situation he was in and was disappointed by the dealings with the Japanese organization.
Many fans were baffled by the random fight announcement and apparently so was Mayweather himself.
On his official Instagram page he told fans that he was mislead into the actual details of what type of event he agreed on.
He was first told he would have an exhibition bout which is typically a simulated fight where no one is actually going full blast on each other and just going through motions similar to sparring. The bout would be three rounds for nine minutes and it would only be for a private audience of wealthy spectators and not to be televised worldwide.
Mayweather went on to apologize to the people who traveled to Japan to attend the presser and to his fans and those who believed he was really going to fight in RIZIN against an undefeated kickboxer who he never heard of before. He goes on to say he was taken advantage of without his consent or approval.
Read Floyd Mayweather’s Official statement below:
floydmayweather: 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.
Posted on Floyd Mayweather’s official Instagram
