Floyd Mayweather to fight Japanese kickboxing sensation on New Year's Eve

Floyd Mayweather has announced that he is joining the Rizin Fighting Federation, a Japanese mixed martial arts organization, and will fight kickboxing star Tenshin Nasukawa at the promotion’s year-end show on New Year’s Eve in Japan.

The shock announcement came at a Monday news conference in Tokyo, where Rizin FF officials introduced both Mayweather and Nasukawa, an undefeated 20-year-old kickboxing sensation who joined the MMA promotion in 2016.

“It wasn’t easy to make this happen,” Mayweather



said. “But we told the people anything is possible, so now we’re here and we wanna make sure that we give the people in Tokyo what they wanna see: blood, sweat and tears.”

Promoters said the fight between Mayweather and Nasukawa will headline the Rizin 14 card to be staged on 31 December at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.

Mayweather, a five-division boxing champion who turns 42 in June, has not fought since a 10th-round knockout of UFC star Conor McGregor under boxing rules in August 2017.