UPDATE: Floyd Mayweather Backs Out Of New Years Eve Fight

UPDATE: 

Per TMZ Sports, Floyd Mayweather releases statement and backs out of his New Year’s Eve fight with Tenshin 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”. 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.”

Floyd Mayweather is returning to combat sports, but instead of boxing, he is stepping into the Octagon to face off with Japanese Kickboxers Tenshin Nasukawa.

On Monday morning, Mayweather flew to Tokyo to appear in a news conference with Nasukawa.

They are set to have the fight on New Year’s Eve inside Tokyo’s Saitama Super Arena. This will be the first time Mayweather fights outside of Las Vegas since 2005.

“Nobody has defeated my opponent in the past, and I’d like to be the man who makes history […] My punch can change history, and I’ll show that to you, so please stay tuned.” – Tenshin Nasukawa

Both Mayweather and Nasukawa are undefeated, but there are some differences within both fighters when it comes down to age and weight class.

Mayweather has 21 years over Kasukawa and usually weighs in at around 150 (where Kasukawa has been fighting at 121 pounds).

“As far as the weight class and the rules, we’ll talk about that and we’ll get that situated within the next couple of weeks.” – Floyd Mayweather.

Mayweather (50-0 with 27 KOs) and Kasukawa sitting at 27-0 with 21 knockouts in kickboxing and 4-0 with two knockouts in MMA.

Official! pic.twitter.com/sjwZDR0mM1

— Bruno Massami (Бруно Массами) (@BrMassami) November 5, 2018

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