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Floyd Mayweather Jr. Backs Off Of Rizin Fight In Instagram Post, Claims He Was Misled At Press Conference

Boxing MMA Manny Pacquiao
Carlos Toro Nov 7, 2018 3:42PM

It appears Floyd Mayweather Jr. isn’t fighting Tenshin Nasukawa after all.

Just days after a Rizin press conference announced that Mayweather would fight the undefeated kickboxing star at Rizin 14, Mayweather make an Instagram post saying that this is not exactly the case. In that post, Mayweather would go on to claim that he never agreed to a fight with Nasukawa at the upcoming Rizin show, scheduled to take place on December 31 in Saitama, Japan.

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Mayweather said he was originally told that he would fight a three-round exhibition fight against someone chosen by Rizin. Mayweather added that this exhibition would not have been shown on a official card, but more so in front of a select few "wealthy spectators" and that the undefeated boxer would be paid a "very large fee." The full Instagram post can be seen below.

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.

A post shared by Floyd Mayweather (@floydmayweather) on

It should be noted that Mayweather has deleted all other Instagram posts regarding his association with Rizin, including a picture of him wearing fighting gloves with the Rizin logo on it. Mayweather has not fought since defeating Conor McGregor in a boxing fight on August 2017. At the time of the Rizin announcement, details of the fight were scarce outside of the supposed opponent. The specific combat sport and ruleset was not revealed, neither were other important details, such as what kind of gloves they would wear and what weight would the fight be contested at.

At the time of this writing, Rizin is still advertising the fight to take place at the December 31 show, tweeting the following promo.

The news also comes after weeks of speculation regarding an in-ring return since Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao met in Tokyo in September and hint at a possible rematch. Floyd would end the Instagram post by saying that he is a retired boxer.

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