Floyd Mayweather is seen in the ring fairly often, considering he's meant to be retired, but they're not exactly ordinary boxing matches. 2017 saw him face off against the UFC's Conor McGregor, which saw a hell of a lot of coverage given both the fighters' outlandish behaviour outside the ring.
Then, after it all kicked off at UFC 229 after McGregor's bout against Khabib Nurmagomedov in 2018, Mayweather came out to say that he'd happily take on the undefeated kickboxer in the future.
However, his next fight saw him taking on 20-year-old Japanese kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa, set for an exhibition match on New Year's Eve. Things soon got confusing for Mayweather's fans, as he later claimed that the announcement of the fight was all one big miscommunication.
"I wanted to do something different. I wanted to display my skills outside the US and be in a special fight," Mayweather said in November. "I want to give the people what they want - blood, sweat and tears."
Just days after the announcement was made to the press, Mayweather came out to say that not only was he not going through with the fight, but he claimed he hadn't officially agreed to it either. He then proceeded to remove traces of the event from his Instagram account. He wrote:
"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."
He claimed he was asked to participate in a "9 minute exhibition of 3 rounds" for a small group of spectators, but soon found out organisers intended for it to be televised. "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," he added, before apologising for the "very misleading information that was announced during this press conference," and claiming he was "completely blindsided".
The fight did eventually go ahead, to the surprise of Mayweather's fans, as he took to the ring with Nasukawa on Monday night in Japan. The boxer knocked his opponent down three times just in the first round, and Nasukawa was forced to throw in the towel before they hit the three-minute mark.
Despite the ease of the fight and the short amount of time it lasted for, Mayweather is said to have earned over $9 million.
"I want to say thank you to Tenshin. This don't go on our record," Mayweather said after the fight, according to the Evening Standard. "We are both still undefeated. He is a great champion and a great fighter. I am still retired. I don't look to come back to boxing. I came back for entertainment for the people of Japan."
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