Floyd Mayweather’s next fight will be against Japanese kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa.
Do you have deja vu? Us too.
It’s been less than a fortnight since Mayweather last announced he would fight — then backflipped to say he wouldn’t fight just three days later — the same opponent.
But on Friday, the CEO of mixed martial arts promoter RIZIN said the fight planned for New Year’s Eve was back on.
“Misunderstanding with Floyd Mayweather has been resolved,” Nobuyuki Sakakibara tweeted on his account.
“He will face off against Tenshin Nasukawa on December 31, New Year’s Eve.
“I will talk about the details at a press conference when I return to Japan,” he added, alongside a picture of himself, Mayweather, and a third man.
The tweet comes after Mayweather told the US website TMZ Sports on Wednesday in California that the fight would go ahead.
“We’re going to make it happen,” he reportedly told the site. “It’s a no-brainer.”
When the fight was first announced, it was unclear what rules would govern the match-up between the retired welterweight boxer and Nasukawa, an unbeaten kickboxer.
But Mayweather told TMZ Sport the face-off would involve “no kicking.”
“Rules? It’s going to be a little boxing exhibition,” he said. “I’m moving around with the guy for nine minutes, and of course it’s going be the highest paid exhibition ever.”
Mayweather also had a message for Khabib that the pair would only fight in the boxing ring.
“They said it has to happen in the Octagon. And I said, ‘Just tell me where Khabib has made 9 figures before in the Octagon’,” Mayweather said.
“If he hasn’t made 9 figures, he’s not the A-side. So, I’m the A-side.
“It’s my way, my rules. I’m Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather.”
The unbeaten 41-year-old, who won world titles in five different weight divisions, made headlines earlier this month when he announced on his Instagram page that he was coming out of retirement for the fight.
“I want to give the people what they want — blood, sweat and tears,” he told a news conference in Tokyo afterwards.
But just two days later he posted a lengthy statement on his social media accounts saying he had been “blindsided” by organisers of the bout and had “never agreed” to the fight.
— with AFP
