Floyd Mayweather may step into the ring with Tenshin Nasukawa after all.
Boxing’s biggest money draw told TMZ in a video interview published Thursday that he still might go to Japan and fight Nasukawa on New Year’s Eve. The bout would be a co-promotion between Mayweather Promotions and Rizin — and it would only be a boxing exhibition.
“It’s gonna be a little boxing exhibition,” Mayweather said. “No kicking at all. I’m moving around with the guy for nine minutes. And of course it’s gonna be the highest paid exhibition ever.”
Earlier this month, Mayweather surprisingly showed up at a Rizin press conference in Tokyo alongside Nasukawa and Rizin CEO Nobuyuki Sakakibara. He was there apparently to announce a fight between him and Nasukawa, the 20-year-old kickboxing prodigy, at Rizin’s Dec. 31 show at Saitama Super Arena.
However, just three days later, Mayweather reneged, saying he was misled by Rizin about the scope of what the fight would be.
“I went over there, it happened to be a huge press conference,” Mayweather told TMZ. “So then of course, I didn’t want to throw a lot of my people under the bus. So, I basically told them, this is not gonna work out.”
But now it seems it will. Mayweather said he’s eyeing a nine-minute showcase that will be “the highest paid exhibition ever.” Mayweather, who faced Conor McGregor in boxing in August 2017 before retiring again, said he has already made seven figures just talking about the fight with Nasukawa.
“We’re gonna make it happen,” Mayweather said. “So like I said before, it’s a no-brainer. Just because I’m retired from boxing, people don’t think that I can still go out — I still make appearances worldwide and still make a ton of money. It’s not like I’m 60 or 70 years old. Even if I’m 60 or 70 years old, I’m still gonna have the same lifestyle. Why? Smart investments.”
Mayweather also clarified that he is not doing this because he needs money.
“Everybody talking about I’m fighting a small guy,” he said. “People don’t understand. Even when people are like, ‘Floyd fights because he needs money.’ It’s more like this: Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Oprah, they still go out there and do different things and get paid financially great. Like I’ve said before, I’m far from hurting for money. I got a ton of money.”