Floyd Mayweather Jr. has sensationally signed with Japanese mixed martial arts promotion RIZIN Fighting Federation and will compete on their New Year’s Eve card in Saitama.
The unbeaten 41-year-old was unveiled at a Tokyo press conference and it was announced he would take on promising MMA starlet and kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa.
Mayweather has not fought since stretching his undefeated boxing record to 50-0 after stopping UFC superstar Conor McGregor in 2017.
The American, who has won world boxing titles in five different weight categories, has never fought professionally in MMA, however, the rules set is yet to be determined.
The bout is to be held at the RIZIN.14 event and speaking at the press conference, Rizin president Nobuyuki Sakakibara said (via/Josh Gross): “First we had to convince Mr. Mayweather to come to the ring on the Rizin ring on Dec. 31. As you know Mr. Mayweather is undefeated. But all his fights have been in the U.S. He has had a wish to fight outside the U.S.
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“We’re happy we’ve convinced him to come to Japan for this history making even. In the second phase once we knew Mr. Mayweather would be in the Rizin ring on NYE, we thought of the appropriate opponent and there was only one: Tenshin
“Regarding rules and weight we have more work cut out for us, but we feel this will be a great fight so many people will be excited to see. We’re so happy Mr. Nasukawa accepted this in a flash.”
