By Allan Fox: Floyd Mayweather Jr will be fighting three months from now on February 28th against an unnamed opponent at the Tokyo Dome. The 43-year-old former five-division world champion Mayweather will be competing in an MMA event ‘Mega 2021.’
This is expected to be a boxing exhibition for Mayweather, not an MMA. There’s a lot of speculation about who Mayweather will be fighting. Given the location of the fight, it’s likely that Mayweather will be fighting a fighter well known to the Japanese fans.
Who will Mayweather fight?
Months ago, Youtuber Logan Paul was rumored as someone that Mayweather was interested in fighting. That would arguably be a step up from the last guy Mayweather fought on December 31st, 2018 when he defeated the Japanese kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa in an exhibition boxing match on RIZIN 14. Mayweather knocked the much smaller and younger bantamweight Tenshin down three times en route to a first-round knockout.
Mayweather could make a lot of money fighting Manny Pacquiao in a rematch, but the fact that he’s not shown interest suggests that he knows he would lose. Pacquiao has stayed active with his boxing career, and he looked great in defeating previously unbeaten WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman in July 2019.
Mayweather wasted the opportunity to fight Pacquiao in a rematch after their fight in 2015. In hindsight, Mayweather should have fought Pacquiao in 2016, and he would have done well. But Mayweather chose not to take that fight. Mayweather is a businessman, but he doesn’t always make the right decisions, obviously to increase his wealth.
Boxing fans are split in their thoughts on Mayweather fighting exhibition matches at his age. While some fans are against them and feel that Mayweather is hurting the sport and destroying his image, other people feel that he has the right to earn a living doing whatever he pleases.
They believe that Mayweather has earned the right through his long successful career in boxing to take part in the exhibition matches to continue to bring in income.
Is Floyd Mayweather Jr broke?
There are a lot of rumors about Mayweather having blown through his huge fortune with his lavish lifestyle. Some fans believe the real reason for Mayweather coming back is he needs the money to continue to live the way he has over the years.
According to Celebritynetworth, Mayweather’s net worth is estimated to be $450 million. But who knows how accurate that is? If he has blown through that fortune with his spending, gambling, and with all the people on his payroll, it makes sense for him to be returning to the ring to make money with the exhibition matches.
Supposing that Mayweather is going broke, he needs to reduce his overhead and increase the number of exhibition matches he takes. Mayweather fought in 2018, and he could have made money in 2019 and 2020 fighting exhibition matches.
It’s not a good idea for Mayweather to stay inactive for prolonged periods if he wants to stay marketable with boxing fans. As the saying goes, ‘out of sight out of mind.’ Mayweather should frequently be fighting, even if it’s against MMA fighters with no boxing ability.