Watch Floyd Mayweather Destroy Kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa In First Round
“Money” made short work of the smaller Japanese fighter at a bizarre RIZIN FF 14 exhibition match.
Floyd Mayweather may be retired, but he’s still Floyd Mayweather. So it was a surprise to absolutely no one that boxing’s former pound-for-pound king easily beat down undersized Japanese kickboxing champ Tenshin Nasukawa in a farcical “special rules” boxing exhibition at RIZIN FF 14 early Monday.
Mayweather scored three quick knockdowns in the first round, and with the last one Nasukawa was finished. The rules decreed that the smaller kickboxer couldn’t use his feet, so he never really had a chance against “The Best Ever” in the boxing ring.
Nasukawa must have been in it for the paycheck and the spotlight of the biggest exhibition match since Rocky Balboa took on Thunderlips in Rocky III. That’s the only way to explain why he set himself up to be humiliated at the hands of the greatest boxer of his generation.
3 knockdowns and that's a wrap. #RIZIN #RIZINFF #RIZIN14 pic.twitter.com/6swLFGaggR
— Jonnyboy (@JBNeverDies) December 31, 2018
Mayweather announced the fight with Nasukawa a few months ago. He pulled out at one point but changed his mind. After all, it was clear it was supposed to be more for entertainment than anything, but it was still kind of a head-scratcher.
Mainly because the height and bodyweight disparity between the men pretty much predicted the outcome, barring Nasukawa being a supernaturally talented fighter in his own right.
https://twitter.com/Bestrafer7/status/1079752280071524355
In an Instagram post, Mayweather revealed what he was paid to barely break a sweat.
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In the caption, Mayweather wrote, “What if I told you I was making $9,000,000 for 9 minutes of sparring in Tokyo Japan would you do the same if you were me? I like to call it a 9 minute walk thru.”
Basically he picked up enough money in less than one round to buy a couple of supercars and another tiger.
Sports journalist Sheldon Keay really summed it up in a tweet.
Floyd Mayweather just got paid millions of dollars to destroy Tenshin in less than a round. The greatest businessman in history. #Rizin14 pic.twitter.com/a5rzupGaJq
— Sheldan Keay (@SheldanKeay) December 31, 2018
ESPN boxing scribe Dan Rafael also wasn’t a big fan of the fight.
Floyd dropped Tenshin I think 4 times in a farcical 1st-round knockout in their exhibition. Just an abomination. If you paid for it, that's on you. That said, all credit to Floyd for getting that $ for doing absolutely nothing.
— Dan Rafael (@DanRafael1) December 31, 2018
It’s hard to argue with the conclusion that Mayweather is one hell of a businessman. There are worse ways to waste time in retirement than trouncing an opponent who is half your size and walking off with millions in hand.
Even if he did fatten his own bank account quite a bit, Tenshin Nasukawa is the one who may need time to recover from the whole thing, as he was clearly distraught at the end of the match.
Maybe the next time he challenges one of the GOATs, he should watch some videos and see what he’ll be facing when he gets in the ring.
Though as Mayweather’s winning boxing match against Conor McGregor proved, even that may not help you in the end.
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