Floyd Mayweather Jr. Cancels Fight In Japan After Being ‘Blindsided’ By Promoters
Anticipation for a Floyd Mayweather Jr. comeback lasted all of three days before the boxing legend took to social media on Wednesday, November 7, to inform fans that his matchup slated to take place against kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa in Japan has fallen through, according to Yahoo Sports.
As was previously reported by the Inquisitr, it threw many for a loop to see a video of Mayweather confirming that he had agreed to link up with Rizin promotions for a bout at the Saitama Super Arena on New Year’s Eve. The announcement was made via a press conference that YouTube streamed live from Tokyo over the weekend, and featured both fighters saying their piece about what brought them to the table to work out a fight agreement. However, according to what Mayweather is now saying, what fans didn’t pick up on is how a dishonest move that the organizers pulled on the business end led him to have a change of heart midway through the spectacle.
“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 wrote in the caption of an Instagram post he published as a means of explaining the mixup.
Mayweather opened the message up by claiming that he, at no point, agreed to a sanctioned fight and that at best, he had been in talks to take part in a 3-round exhibition that would have lasted no more than 9 minutes long.
“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,” The Money Team boss then went on to write.
“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 has since removed a photograph that he had up of him wearing a pair of mixed martial arts gloves bearing the date of the prospective fight beneath the Rizin logo. Meanwhile, a scroll down Nasukawa’s Twitter page lends the impression that he may have been the last to get the memo. His most recent tweet tags Conor McGregor with an invitation to tune in and watch, with the promise that he will avenge the UFC brawler’s 2017 loss to Mayweather.
I’ll absolutely win.
Cuz I born to change the world with this fist.
Who’s gonna fight together with me as Team Tenshin?
See you at RIZIN. #TeamTenshin#RIZIN14#Cygames#mayweathertenshin pic.twitter.com/ftg1AB1hgH— ??? ?? (@TeppenTenshin) November 5, 2018
