Floyd Mayweather Backs Off Of Rizin FF 14 Fight, Says He Never Agreed to Public Bout

Floyd Mayweather is backing out of his fight with Rizin FF, stating on Instagram that he never agreed to a public contest. You can see Mayweather’s post below, in which he says he never agreed to an official fight with his announced opponent, Tenshin Nasukawa, for Rizin FF 14 on New Year’s Eve. The boxer was part of the press conference for the event, which went down on Sunday.

Mayweather says that he was asked to be part of a nine minute, three-round exhibition in front of “a small group of wealthy spectators for a very large fee” by One Entertainment’s Ben Hohnson, which was not supposed to be part of an official fight card or televised worldwide. He goes on to say that he was “completely derailed” at the press conference and that he didn’t speak out at the time because he didn’t want to create a disturbance “[f]or the sake of the several fans and attendees that flew in from all parts of the world to attend this past press conference.”

Rizin has yet to comment on Mayweather’s statement, but it certainly appears as if the fight is off. Rizin FF 14 takes place on December 31st at Saitama Super Arena.

View this post on Instagram

Now that I am back on U.S. soil after a long and disappointing trip to Tokyo, I now have the time to address you, my fans and the media in regard to the upcoming event on December 31st that was recently announced. First and foremost, I want it to be clear that I, Floyd Mayweather, never agreed to an official bout with Tenshin Nasukawa. In fact (with all due respect) I have never heard of him until this recent trip to Japan. Ultimately, I was asked to participate in a 9 minute exhibition of 3 rounds with an opponent selected by the "Rizen Fighting Federation". What I was originally informed of by Brent Johnson of "One Entertainment" was that this was to be an exhibition put on for a small group of wealthy spectators for a very large fee. This exhibition was previously arranged as a "Special Bout" purely for entertainment purposes with no intentions of being represented as an official fight card nor televised worldwide. Once I arrived to the press conference, my team and I were completely derailed by the new direction this event was going and we should have put a stop to it immediately. I want to sincerely apologize to my fans for the very misleading information that was announced during this press conference and I can assure you that I too was completely blindsided by the arrangements that were being made without my consent nor approval. For the sake of the several fans and attendees that flew in from all parts of the world to attend this past press conference, I was hesitant to create a huge disturbance by combating what was being said and for that I am truly sorry. I am a retired boxer that earns an unprecedented amount of money, globally, for appearances, speaking engagements and occasional small exhibitions.

A post shared by Floyd Mayweather (@floydmayweather) on Nov 7, 2018 at 10:53am PST