Justin Bieber has more or less confirmed he will walk Floyd Mayweather Jr. into the ring at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand tonight.
As per yesterday’s reports, the 19-year-old posted a photo of himself and the boxing champion to his Instagram account on Saturday.
With a nod to legalities and perhaps remembering Dana White’s previous rebuke , the heartthrob wrote:
“Go to showtime.net to get the fight and support the champ @FloydMayweather. I’ll be there too.”
“Money May,” as Mayweather is also known, is fighting Canelo Alvarez for the super welterweight title in what is reported to be the most lucrative fight of his 10-0 career to date. The 36-year-old gets a guaranteed purse of $41 million after the bout, win or lose.
And Justin Bieber will be one of those walking him into the ring to do it.
The fight has sold out the approximately 16,800-seat MGM Grand Garden Arena and it’s reported 65 percent of those piling in tonight will be of Mexican heritage.
In other words, the house will be screaming for Alvarez tonight.
This will be Bieber’s second walk-in for the world’s highest-earning sportsman.
Last May the pop prince, along with mutual friends and rappers Lil Wayne and 50 Cent, made an eye-catching tableau as they walked Mayweather to the ring for his face-off against Miguel Cotto — which Floyd went on to win.
Justin has known the Mayweather family for at least a year, possibly longer.
The boxer’s daughter Iyanna is a massive fan of the teen star and the little girl famously received a kiss from the singer at his Believe tour Sin City concert last September, which she delightedly tweeted about the next day.
@moneyyaya : Me and my husband @justinbieber at his concert it made my whole day when he kissed me on the cheek!! pic.twitter.com/uJaU8iwb
— Iyanna Mayweather (@moneyyaya) October 1, 2012
Fast forward to May this year. Before Bieber’s ill-fated appearance at the Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas, the Canadian dropped in on Iyanna’s thirteenth birthday celebrations — earning the gratitude of her father.
Nothing but the best for my daughter @moneyyaya . Thank you @justinbieber . Welcome to Las Vegas. [pic] — https://t.co/UKBZaEJATe — Floyd Mayweather (@FloydMayweather) May 19, 2013
Quoted in reflective mood in the February 2012 issue of V Magazine, the teen previously compared life atop the pop charts and boxing championships titles as a similar grind, to the extent that there’s always someone waiting in the wings.
“Yeah, I mean, when I was coming up, trying to get to where I am now, people were so happy (for me). They were rooting for me,” Justin told V.
He went on , “Now that I’m on top, everyone wants to bring me down. Everyone’s trying to tug at me and take my spot. And that’s how it always is, everyone wants you to be on top, and as soon as you’re there — like Floyd Mayweather, he’s the best boxer in the world. Now he is a champion.
The singer added: “Every time he goes to a fight now, people are like, ‘He’s going to lose this time,’ and then he wins… Every time he wins. And people aren’t ever going to know that he’s a champ.”
Tonight, Mayweather gets to prove Bieber’s words true or false.