YouTube/RIZIN
Boxing superstar Floyd Mayweather Jr. Is set to return to combat sports on New Year’s Eve in what is sure to be a bizarre, but intriguing bout. On Monday morning, Mayweather appeared at a press conference to announce he will be fighting 20-year-old undefeated Japanese kickboxing phenom Tenshin Nasukawa.
The fight will take place at a RIZIN FF event on December 31, 2018 at Super Saitama Arena, though many details remain unannounced.
“As far as the weight class and the rules, we’ll talk about that,” said Mayweather, via Brett Okamoto of ESPN.com. “We’ll get that situated within the next couple of weeks. This particular bout is a special bout as far as we’re giving the people something they’ve never seen before. 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.
“As far as the weight class, we’re not really worried about that. It’s all about me going out there and displaying my skills against another skillful fighter. So we both want to go out there and display our skills and give people excitement. I just want to entertain. I will speak with my team and I will let my team get with Rizin and I’m pretty sure they’ll come up with a great idea, but it’s all about entertainment and that’s what we want to do for the people.”
Mayweather holds a professional kickboxing record of 50-0 and last fought in August 2017 where he knocked out Conor McGregor. Tenshin, meanwhile, holds a 27-0 record with 21 knockouts in kickboxing and a 4-0 record with two knockouts in MMA. Most recently, Tenshin knocked out former UFC fighter Kyoji Horiguchi.
It will mark Mayweather’s first fight outside of Las Vegas since November 2005.
