The rumors have been true all along.
It is official. Longtime pound for pound king and legend of the sport Floyd Mayweather Jr (50-0, 27 KOs) is returning to the ring on New Year’s Eve in Japan. This has been what the PPV king has been rumored to have been planning for some time now. Manny Pacquiao even told the media that his plan was to meet Mayweather a second time in 2019 after Floyd fights in Japan on December 31st. For once, the wild rumors of the sport of boxing have proven correct.
What was not rumored, however, is that the bout would take place in Rizin Fighting Federation, commonly known just as Rizin. The Japanese promotion is predominantly known as an MMA organization, though it does feature a heavy dose of kickboxing and occasionally features hybrid rules matches. Floyd’s opponent on the show will be renowned kickboxer and part time MMA fighter Kenshin Nasukawa. Interestingly, Rizin president Nobuyuki Sakakibara says there is still work to do in terms of solidifying both the weight limit and the rules. The implication here then is that this will not be a pure boxing match, but instead some sort of mixed rules contest that will not count on the 50-0 fighter’s boxing record.
That is the part of the breaking news that will grab immediate headlines. It is the other half that is the undersized elephant in the room, however. Nasukawa is a rising superstar in Japan, yes, but he is also a 20 year old who only recent just started fighting at 126 lbs rather than 122. If hypothetically Floyd does feel comfortable adding some grappling, it’ll be because he will have a twenty plus pound advantage in the ring.
I will admit that I am curious to see how the rules do end up playing out here. Even if it does become a straight boxing match in the end, I can’t see the Japanese Boxing Commission sanctioning the bout as a pro contest due to the experience and weight differential. I can’t see Floyd leaving this one with a different record in professional boxing, win or lose. Of course, we should acknowledge that without the agreement on weight and rules or the blessing of Japanese officials, this isn’t a 100% done deal. It remains liable to fall apart. Clearly Floyd Mayweather Jr likes the money being offered over there, although we should note the oddity of the typical numbers forward fighter had nothing whatsoever to say about his potential income in the announcement.
Still, both parties also felt comfortable enough to announce the match with Nasukawa. Floyd even posted himself wearing Rizin MMA gloves on Instagram hours before the announcement. The fight in some form is on course. Given that the first and more outlandish fight of Mayweather’s two fight comeback rumor held true, we can probably expect the rumored rematch with Manny Pacquiao at some point in the first half of 2019 too assuming the Filipino overcomes his all but official bout with Adrien Broner in January.
