Mayweather to fight Japanese MMA star

The date, venue and rules of his fight against 29-year-old featherweight

Asakura will be announced later this month

Newly enshrined Hall of Fame boxer Floyd Mayweather will fight Japanese mixed martial arts star Mikuru Asakura in a September exhibition in Japan, organisers said Tuesday.

The former welterweight world champion, who was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame on Sunday after retiring with an unbeaten 50-0 record, beat “Dangerous” Don Moore in an exhibition in Abu Dhabi last month.

The date, venue and rules of his fight against 29-year-old featherweight Asakura will be announced later this month.

It will be the 45-year-old Mayweather’s fourth exhibition and his second in Japan, after beating kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa by TKO in just two minutes in December 2018, in a bout that was widely ridiculed.

Mayweather called himself the “pioneer of exhibitions” and promised to “put on a show” for fans when he returns in September.

“We’re going to treat him nice, we’re going to let him go three rounds, we’re going to let him try to land his shot,” Mayweather said of his opponent.

“I may not let him land one punch, it’s all up to me, it’s all on what I want to do,” the American added, describing himself as “the puppet-master”.

Mayweather said his “legacy is already set in stone” after entering the Hall of Fame.

He retired from professional boxing in 2017 after beating UFC star Conor McGregor.

“It’s great to go into the Hall of Fame and the great thing about it is I did everything on my terms,” he said.

“You look at so many champions and they can barely walk, they can barely talk. That’s not cool. The name of the game is to hit and not get hit.”

Asakura said he intends to “use this opportunity to raise my name and my value internationally”.

Not the first

It is not the first that the boxing great will face a mixed martial artist as he previously faced UFC icon Conor McGreggor On August 26, 2017, in a boxing ring in Las Vegas.

It was a memorable moment when just before the start of the bout, the referee reminded one of the fighters of the sport he was competing in.

“You’re going to hear me say stop because I’m not going to wrestle with you and I’m not going to grapple with you,” referee Robert Byrd had said as he looked squarely at McGregor.

It was an epic opportunity for MMA to reach the audience they want to target. What could have been a better option than when their poster boy faced one of the greatest boxers of all time.

Boxing had little to gain but MMA could make a fortune out of it.

The much-anticipated contest ended with a 10th-round technical knockout when it appeared that the Irishman could not take the brutal blows of Mayweather anymore.

Mayweather vs. YouTuber

In another exhibition match, on June 06, 2021, the former welterweight champion took on a YouTuber, Logan Paul at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami.

It was a lacklustre affair and the spectators were bored by the action. In the first two rounds, what boxing legend only did was blocking, while Paul tried to land some hard punches, which were blocked by his opponent.

In the eight-round boxing contest, Mayweather was aware of the damage he could cause and held back his powerful blows.

However, at the end of the fight, which resulted in no result, the boxing Hall of Famer praised his opponent. “He’s better than I thought he was … he’s a tough, rough competitor,” he said.

However, later in an interview, he maintained if it was a ‘real fight’, he would have knocked his opponent out in the first round.

“If it was a real fight, it would’ve been a blowout in the first round,” he claimed.