Breaking: Floyd Mayweather Says RIZIN Fight Is Already Off
Well, that didn’t take long.
Three days after it was surprisingly announced “Money” would fight Japanese kickboxing sensation Tenshin Nasukawa in RIZIN FF 14 next month, Floyd Mayweather says the fight is off.
The undefeated boxing legend took to Instagram today (November 7, 2018) to reveal that the terms of the fight were not to his liking. According to him the supposed ‘exhibition fight’ was now off. Mayweather says he never agreed to an official bout with Nasukawa:
“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 regards 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.”
Non-Televised Exhibition?
Mayweather claims he was told he would be putting on an exhibition for a ‘small group of wealthy investors for a large payday. ‘Money’ insists he was told it was never meant to be on an official fight card or televised:
“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.”
He claimed the press conference went South as soon as he got there. “Money’ apologized to his fans who had become invested in the fight due to the “misleading information.” He closed by saying he is still a retired fighter and only makes appears in ‘speaking engagements’ and ‘occasional small exhibitions’ for large amounts of money:
“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.”
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