Do you feel the tingling excitement of fight week?
Technically, the Floyd Mayweather-Tenshin Nasukawa bout isn?t happening until next week?Monday, December 31, to be exact?but I guess this could still be classified as a ?fight week.?
So, are you excited?
Mayweather, a future first ballot Hall of Famer, 5-division former world champ cash cow, and serial burr in the saddle of uptight boxing purists everywhere, will be taking on 20-year-old undefeated kickboxing featherweight, Nasukawa, in a 3-round exhibition at the 37,000-seat Saitama Prefecture Super Arena in Saitama, Japan this New Year?s Eve.
Per Press Release Summarizer Supreme, Dan Rafael of ESPN:
?The fight will take place at a contract weight of 147 pounds, the welterweight division limit, with boxing-standard three-minute rounds. The fighters will wear 8-ounce Rizin-brand boxing gloves. Because the fight is an exhibition, whatever happens will not count on either fighter?s official record. No judges will be employed, so if it goes the distance no scores will be rendered.?
And if Japanese media reports are to be believed, the 41-year-old ?Money? Mayweather will rake in upwards of $88 million for the 9-minute exhibition?$62 million from event organizer, Rizin Fighting Federation, and up to an additional $26 million from his take of PPV money (although, as of this writing, there?s currently no broadcast deal in place to air the fight in the US).
?This is a great way for me to go out there and give people some entertainment,? Mayweather said. ?It?s all about entertainment. Nine minutes of entertainment. It?s going to be amazing.
?I?m in the entertainment business. That?s what I go out there to do. I love to do this. I?m working out to put on a show for three rounds. I?m going to go out there, have fun and do what I do. I?m enjoying life, and I?m going to enjoy this experience.?
And why the hell wouldn?t he enjoy this deal?
The easiest thing in the world would be to dump on this make-believe fight and use it as exhibit #295 in the case against Mayweather?s professional legacy and his status as an honest, dignified professional boxer. Personally, I don?t buy into the purist anti-Floyd nonsense about him ducking everyone, running scared from the world, and otherwise pissing on the sport. Mayweather has done nothing to aid his own career that hasn?t been done by managers/promoters for ages to benefit their own fighters. Measuring risk vs. reward is standard operating procedure in boxing matchmaking and anybody who doesn?t see that is either a liar, a moron, or someone who just started watching boxing. Mayweather?s professional legacy is secure and he has done nothing to earn the avalanche of scorn he gets from a good number of crusty hardcore fight fans.
Actually, I applaud a retired fighter getting a huge chunk of change for such a silly and supposedly easy night of work, no matter who that fighter is. Forget that his bank account already has more zeroes in it than his entourage, $88 million going to a fighter is good news.
On a side note, though, somebody might want to tell Floyd that Nasukawa, who is undefeated in 27 kickboxing contests and 4 MMA bouts and who stands to gain a ton from flipping the script and laying out one of the sporting world?s most recognizable names, seems to be talking about this fun exhibition as if it were a real fight.
?The fight is very close and I?m training hard every day to face Mayweather and leave a mark,? the Japanese rising star said through an interpreter. ?This is a great opportunity and we?re happy to take it. I?m going to put everything out there and show my strengths? I?m going to use my weapons against him. There?s never been a Japanese fighter to face Floyd Mayweather in the ring. As an athlete, this is something that?s a great honor and a challenging task. I?d like to make a big impression.?
Mayweather kicked in the puss and laid out in Saitama after a vicious double-cross by a Japanese fight promoter hoping to make a worldwide superstar of his young fighter? Boy, would that make the Floyd-haters tinkle in their Underoos! Hell, that kind of ballsy set-up would even have many Floyd-defenders kind of half-smiling.
Mayweather?s got every right to his $88 million on New Year?s Eve, but there?s no guarantee that any money is easy money in the wild world of prizefighting.
