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.
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.
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.