Floyd Mayweather Defeats Tenshin Nasukawa via TKO in New Year's Eve Exhibition
Floyd Mayweather defeated Japanese kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa in a first-round knockout in a New Year's Eve exhibition in Tokyo on Monday.
Mayweather knocked him down three times in two minutes, eventually forcing Nasukawa’s corner to throw in the towel.
Afterwards, Mayweather said, "I’m still retired. I’m still 50-0," according to ESPN's Ariel Helwani. The 41-year-old Mayweather was 50–0 heading into the fight, while the 20-year-old Nasukawa was also undefeated.
Nasukawa was reportedly crying during the post-fight interview.
The exhibition was up in the air after Mayweather appeared to back out after orgianlly announcing the matchup in November. However, Nobuyuki Sakakibara, the head of Rizin Fighting Federation, which is putting on the three-round exhibition, told reporters that "a misunderstanding" was behind Mayweather, 41, appearing to back out.
The results will not go against either fighter’s win-loss record.
Sakakibara stressed the event would include the largest payout for an exhibition fight but did not give specifics. Mayweather previously said he was already making “seven figures” just by talking about it. According to Helwani, if the numbers were correct, Mayweather earned $4.5 million a minute for the fight or $9 million total for the two-minute fight.
Mayweather last came out of retirement in 2017 to fight Connor McGregor.
The Associated Press contributed to this.
