IT was bad enough first time around, but Floyd Mayweather appears set for further exhibition boxing matches in Japan against overmatched young kickboxers and mixed martial artists.
Rejoice.
Not content with banking a reported ยฃ7 million for knocking out kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa on December 31, Mayweather, 42, has now launched his TMT (The Money Team) in the far east and suggested farcical exhibition bouts could be the way to go.
โOf course, we took the TMT brand and made it worldwide and not just kept it in the States,โ Mayweather said at a press conference in Tokyo on Wednesday night.
โWe believe TMT Tokyo can be huge. Weโve been speaking about having more exhibitions over here in Japan. Not just myself, but also some other fighters under the Mayweather promotions banner.โ
Though a Mayweather exhibition bout wouldnโt fly in the States (then again, Conor McGregorโฆ), there seems an appetite for them in Japan. Mayweather, too, has an appetite for them, and who can blame him? If reports are correct, the former multi-weight world champion earned ยฃ52,000-per-second for his one-round demolition of Nasukawa last year, a figure as staggering as the result was inevitable.
Expect Badou Jack and Gervonta Davis, two boxers competing under the Mayweather Promotions banner, to get in on some of that exhibition action in the coming months. Unlike Mayweather, they have active professional careers, but, like their boss, they also have bills to pay and mouths to feed and a love of easy fights and crisp American dollars.
If Andy Ruiz Jnr says youโre not fighting for his WBO world heavyweight title, guess what? Youโre not fighting for his WBO world heavyweight title.
Tyson Fury, ever the outspoken troublemaker, had teased the possibility of a WBO heavyweight title being on the line when he fights unknown German Tom Schwarz in Las Vegas this Saturday (June 15). However, Ruiz, owner of said belt, has assured Fury this will not be the case and, in light of his exploits on June 1 against Anthony Joshua, his comments trump whatever Fury says at this stage.
โIโm hearing now that it could be on the line on Saturday night,โ Fury had initially said. โThatโs inside information so maybe I shouldnโt have said that. There is a chance. Itโs highly doable, so Iโve been told, so maybe itโll be for the WBO championship as well.โ
Ruiz, though, reckons Fury is wrong and says he will travel to the WBOโs headquarters in Puerto Rico next month to discuss the situation with Francisco โPacoโ Varcarcel, the sanctioning bodyโs president. โIโm actually going to Puerto Rico with Paco in July so weโre going to talk and all that,โ Ruiz told Fino Boxing. โBut, no, I donโt think thatโs true.โ
Common sense, one would hope, is going to prevail and Ruiz will be allowed to keep every one of the three titles (WBA, IBF and WBO) he ripped from Joshuaโs grasp in Madison Square Garden, New York.
The irony here, of course, is that Fury found himself stripped of all the heavyweight titles he won back in 2015 when beating Wladimir Klitschko in Germany. Regrettably, what should have been his defining night, his launchpad to subsequent title defences and life-changing paydays, evaporated before his eyes and instead led to two and a half years away from the ring, at least one failed performance-enhancing drug test, and various other issues from which, thankfully, he was able to recover.
Itโs up to Ruiz now to avoid making the same mistakes. Because, if he can, there is plenty of money to be made as world heavyweight champion, chiefly a potential $50 million payday for rematching Joshua in the UK. And even if Joshuaโs team baulk at that asking price, Ruiz will still make plenty defending his belts โ including the WBO version โ in a rematch in America or Mexico. ย
โI will be doing the rematch and it might be in November or December,โ he said. โWeโre still in negotiations to see if itโs going to be here in the United States but weโre trying to fight to make the fight in Mexico.
โSo Iโm really excited for that, for all the Mexican people can be there, all my people. It really doesnโt matter if itโs here or Mexico. Iโm still willing to get it on.โ
Unlike Joshua, Fury and Deontay Wilder, the WBC champion, Andy Ruiz answered the call, said yes, and went out and grabbed it. For that we should let the man eat (within reason). For that we should let the man have his moment. More importantly, for shaking up something in danger of going stale, the sanctioning bodies should let the man keep whatโs his.