By Allan Fox: Floyd Mayweather Jr. is ready for his exhibition boxing match against kick boxer Tenshin Nasukawa on December 31 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama City, Saitama, Japan. Mayweather, 41, had one of his team address the comments from Nasukawa about him potentially using a leg kick during their three round exhibition fight.
There’s a penalty clause in the contract which will result in the 20-year-old Nasukawa receiving a heavy fine if he kicks or uses any other MMA moves against Mayweather during the event.
Kenny Bayless will be the referee for the Mayweather vs. Tenishin match.
It’ll be interesting to see if Tenshin decides to make big news headlines by kicking Mayweather in the head to hurt him. The exhibition match would likely be stopped on the spot even if Mayweather ins’t hurt. But if Tenshin does knock Mayweather out with a kick, it’s going to create a lot of news in the boxing and MMA world. Tenshin will lose a sizeable portion of his purse in dealing with the penalty, but it’s possible that his increased popularity would make up for the fine that he would receive. If knocking out Mayweather with a kick results in Tenshin getting a big increase in popularity, then perhaps he might see it as being worth it. The money that Tenshin can make from the popularity that he gains from the Mayweather fight will be considerable as long as it creates headlines. Would Tenshin be willing to bend the rules to get the most attention on himself? Tenshin could make the money back in capitalizing on his popularity. Depending on how big the fine is, Tenshin might be able to make up the difference by giving paid interviews, and fighting popular guys for lots of money. Mayweather might have reason to be worried in this fight if his opponent decides to kick him in the head or use some other type of MMA move that he has no ability to defend against.
It’s disappointing to some how Mayweather has given up on his boxing career, and is now scraping together fights against MMA guys with no experience in boxing. He first fought UFC star Conor McGregor last year in August in a boxing match that a lot of fans paid to see. Mayweather is now fighting a kick boxer from the MMA sport in Tenshin. Mayweather is still young enough to compete at a high level in boxing if he were willing to continue his career, but it seems like he’s no longer interested in fighting boxers, just MMA guys in boxing matches. Bernard Hopkins was still boxing at at the same age Mayweather is at now, and he wasn’t looking to pool from the MMA sport to set up mismatches.
A lot of boxing fans think this is a bad look for Mayweather, fighting a little known kick boxer to get a payday. The money for this fight isn’t anywhere near what Mayweather made fighting Conor McGregor and Pacquiao. Mayweather could make more money if he returned to boxing and faced someone like Errol Spence, Keith Thurman, Saul Canelo Alvarez or Gennady Golovkin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2r2ZFzszTw