Floyd Mayweather announced Sunday night that he plans on coming out of retirement again to face 20-year-old kickboxing phenom Tenshin Nasukawa on December 31. The decision to work with the Japanese promotional company Rizin Fighting Federation on a fight that will take place in Japan is an unorthodox one for Mayweather, who has had his last 15 bouts take place at some venue located in Nevada. Floyd claims that he and his team wanted to do "something different" with his next match.
"This particular bout is a special bout as far as we're giving the people something they've never seen before," Mayweather said, per ESPN. "The world has never seen Mayweather compete live in Tokyo. Throughout the years, I've seen a lot of fans from Japan come to Las Vegas and come to the U.S., but me and my team said let's do something different. Let's go over to Japan." Floyd even ditched his favorite talking point—money—and expressed his assurance that everything will eventually get sorted out.
Mayweather's nonchalant behavior towards issues, such as money, and any potential conflicts with weight differences, seems far too suspicious, and his frenemy 50 Cent believes he has this whole thing figured out.
With so many details still needing to get hammered out, there's always the possibility that this match between Mayweather and Nasukawa will not happen. One issue that could cause problems is their difference in weight. Floyd has typically fought at around 147 pounds while Nasukawa is currently the Rizin featherweight champion at 126 pounds. That didn't stop the 20-year-old from jumping at this potentially historic opportunity to square off against Mayweather.
"When I was offered this, I accepted right away without any delay whatsoever," Nasukawa said, through a translator. "I would probably say this is my biggest event in life so far, and I'm very happy this is going to materialize. I'm a little surprised myself. Nobody has defeated my opponent in the past, and I'd like to be the man who makes history."
Stay tuned as more details about the fight come out.
