Mayweather crushes Nasukawa in mismatch

By Boxing News - 12/31/2018 - Comments

By Allan Fox: Former six division world champion Floyd Mayweather used his size, power and experience to crush the smaller 122 pound Japanese kickboxing star Tenshin Nasukawa in the first round in a boxing exhibition fight on Monday night, December 31 at the Saitama Prefecture Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. Mayweather didn’t need to do much to earn his money tonight. Floyd Jr. hit Nasukawa hard three times tonight, and all three times, the Japanese fighter hit the deck.

Tenshin did land a couple of nice shots during the fight. He nailed Mayweather with a left hook when he was walking him down after the first knockdown. A short while later, Tenshin hit Mayweather with a hard right hand to the midsection that seemed to irritate him. Mayweather immediately fired back a big right hand to the head of Tenshin that knocked him down for the second time in the fight. The force of the blow knocked Tenshin literally off of his feet due to the weight behind the punch. It didn’t that Mayweather wasn’t hitting him with major power. The weight that Mayweather had behind his shots was knocking Tenshin off his feet each time he would connect solidly. The fight was stopped by Tenshin’s corner after he was dropped for the third time in round one. They tossed in the towel to protect him. It didn’t matter. Nasukawa was so hurt after the third knockdown, the fight was going to be stopped anyway. He was gone at that point. Referee Kenny Bayless, who had worked six of Mayweather’s fights in the past, then waived the fight off after the towel was thrown into the ring. If Mayweather had a chance to land one more shot, he likely would have really hurt Nasukawa, as he badly buzzed after the third knockdown, and in no condition to continue fighting.

Tenshin looked like he was crying after the fight. The Japanese fighter took the loss hard. It’s as if, he didn’t realize there was a good chance that he would be knocked out and utterly embarrassed by Mayweather. Someone should have clued Tenshin in that he had no chance of beating Mayweather outside of a sudden injury from the 41-year-old fighter, which was never going to happen. Mayweather was fighting at a pace that looked like he was just playing around with Nasukawa, but his power was too much for the small kid. Mayweather was a good sport afterwards, trying his best to console Tenshin, but it was no use. He was unhappy at how badly he lost the fight. Being stopped in the first round was a bitter pill for Nasukawa to swallow. On the bright side, he got a nice payday from the fight with Mayweather, if nothing else.

Former two division world champion Andre “SOG” Ward didn’t seem to have any problems with Mayweather fighting a much smaller fighter in Tenshin, judging by his Twitter response tonight.

After the fight, Mayweather made it clear that he has no desire to come out of retirement to resume his career. “I’m not coming back. I’m still retired,” Mayweather said. With Mayweather able to make $9 million for one round of action against a kick-boxer like Tenshin, why would he ever entertain the idea of returning to boxing? If Mayweather resumed his career in the squared circle, he would be pressured to fight good fighters, otherwise he wouldn’t make much money. It’s unclear whether Mayweather can beat top boxers at his age. He looked puffy tonight, and not the in shape guy that we’d known him to be during his career. Mayweather looked like he didn’t train at all for the fight, and why should he? Mayweather was facing a 20-year-old fighter, who had the size of a super bantamweight fighter. Every solid shot that Mayweather landed in the fight shook Nasukawa to his boots. The thing is, Floyd isn’t known for his punching power. The reason he was hurting Tenshin with his shots is because he was facing a guy that so much smaller than him.

The Mayweather-Nasukawa fight was scheduled for three rounds, but the 41-year-old Mayweather wasn’t going to let the 20-year-old Tenshin make it that far. Moments into the fight, Mayweather knocked Tenishin down with a sweeping right hook to the head that had him badly hurt. Tenshin looked disoriented after he got back up from that knockdown. The way that he looked, it was clear that Nasukawa wasn’t going to make it out of the first round. Mayweather then calmly followed Tenshin, and knocked down for a second time with another big shot. The right hand shot that Mayweather dropped Tenshin with didn’t look that hard of a punch, but his huge size advantage is what did the damage. Tenshin shouldn’t have been inside the ring with someone that much bigger than him. Mayweather looked soft, but he clearly was in the 160s against a guy that looked no bigger than 122. The size difference between the two fighters was too much for the fight to have any chance of being a competitive one. And that’s before you even factor in that Mayweather is one of the best fighters in the history of boxing, and he was facing a guy with zero experience inside a ring.

This fight, if you want to call it that, was obviously not the high point of Mayweather’s boxing career. It’s like a race to the bottom for Mayweather. He’s turned into the equivalent of a great tennis player looking to hustle games against guys with no experience in his sport. It’s hard to fathom what Mayweather has turned into, as no one would have expected that he would turn into this after he retired from facing boxers. Mayweather is retired from professional boxing, but he’s still fighting obviously. What was really embarrassing was the Nevada State Athletic Commission actually sanctioned his previous fight against UFC star Conor McGregor, and had it count as a real professional fight. That was incredible given that this is now the 21st century. Sanctioning a mismatch like the Mayweather vs. McGregor fight as a professional match is something you might have seen in the early 20th century, but not in the 21st century. It’s incredibly embarrassing seeing something like that happen.

“It was all about entertainment. We had fun,” Mayweather said after the fight had ended. “Tokyo, Japan, you guys have been amazing. Thank you.”

Tenshin would beg to differ about Mayweather’s assertion that they had fun tonight. If Mayweather had to mix it up with a fighter from the MMA sport had a 25 pound weight advantage over him in competing under Mixed Martial Arts rules, he might have had a different spin on tonight’s fight. It was fun for Mayweather, but that’s because he beating up on a tiny fighter with no experience in boxing, and people paid him for this. The organizers of this event had to know this would likely happen, but have to wonder why they did it.

The Mayweather vs. Nasukawa fight was televised in Japan, and on pay-per-view elsewhere around the world, but not in the United States. This is what Mayweather wanted. In hindsight, it was a wise decision on Mayweather’s part. This was not a fight that would have gone over well with U.S boxing fans if they had to pay to see this farce on PPV. Mayweather needs to supply value to the fans in North America, and fighting a guy like Nasukawa on pay-per-view would have been bad for Mayweather’s brand. If Mayweather is going to continue to fight only MMA guys in boxing events, he needs to at least pick on someone his own size. It doesn’t look sporting for Mayweather to be fighting guys so much smaller than hi like Nasukawa.

As far as the boxing fans that paid to see the Mayweather vs. Nasukawa fight outside of the U.S, let the buyer beware. The fans should have done their research to know what they were getting for their money. If they didn’t, then that’s on them. The hardcore boxing fans were well aware that this was a horrible mismatch, and that Tenshin had no chance of winning against the bigger, stronger and more experienced Mayweather.

Mayweather tried to soften the blow of the Japanese fighter’s loss afterwards by saying that the defeat didn’t count on his record. It obviously doesn’t count, but Tenshin’s fans aren’t going to forget how badly he was drilled by Mayweather.

“I want to say thank you to Tenshin. It’s all about entertainment,” Mayweather said. “This don’t go on my record. This don’t go on Tenshin’s record. Tenshin is still undefeated. I’m still undefeated. This was just entertainment for the people.”

It’s expected that Mayweather will be returning to the boxing ring in 2019 to face 40-year-old Manny Pacquiao in a rematch for his WBA World welterweight title, as long as the Filipino star wins his next fight against Adrien ‘The Problem’ Broner on January 19 on SHOWTIME PPV at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. There was talk that Mayweather was going to face Pacquiao at the end of 2018, but instead he chose to face Nasukawa in a three round exhibition match. Pacquiao’s new management at Premier Boxing Champions then scheduled him to face former four division world champion Broner in January in what amounts to be a stay busy fight for the Filipino star. Pacquiao isn’t what he used to be, but he’s still leagues better than Broner. If Pacquiao does a job against Broner, then we’ll likely see the Mayweather-Pacquiao rematch in 2019. Mayweather can’t afford to wait too long before he sets up the rematch with Pacquiao. If the former eight division world champion Pacquiao faces someone a little too good, he’ll likely lose. Mayweather beat Pacquiao by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision in 2015 in what is the biggest PPV event in the history of boxing.