Floyd Mayweather has vehemently denied that he is set to face Japanese kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa. It had been reported that the 41-year-old would face Nasukawa in Japan on December 31st, but in an Instagram post the boxer denied that any agreement had been made to fight him in an official bout, and that instead Mayweather claims he was only going to be involved in a nine minute exhibition match for a group of 'wealthy spectators':
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.
It was already unclear under what ruleset any clash with Nasukawa would be fought under, but it looks like now there may be no fight to speak of, and regardless of the situation you can guarantee that Mayweather would not put his legacy on the line unless he was pretty sure of the win.
