Floyd Mayweather will definitely be bringing a bit of star power to this weekend’s Super Rizin card but he won’t be coming cheap. The boxing legend claims he could be making in excess of $20 million USD for his exhibition fight with Mikuru Asakura.
In an interview with the Daily Mail he claimed to be making a eight figure sum for this three round fight,
“From this exhibition alone I will making somewhere upwards of $15-20million. That’s just from this exhibition. So, it’s cool. Nine minutes, 20 million, not bad.”
Last time Mayweather was invited to compete in Japan he faced Tenshin Nasukawa in an exhibition at Rizin 14. That turned out to be a brutal mismatch with the kickboxer stopped in the opening round.
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Going the distance
This time around Mayweather has promised to ensure that the fight lasts a little longer,
“There’s not a lot of fights on the undercard so I want to make sure ours goes the distance. Last time it was only like 90 seconds. I want the fans to entertained a little bit more on this one.”
There is a lot of speculation that Mayweather is set to rematch Conor McGregor. He didn’t comment on that but the 45 year old made it clear he does not want to face elite opponents at this stage of his career,
“I make great money from these exhibitions. But like I told you, I am not taking any abuse. If they were doing some bodily harm I would have to walk away completely. I am not going to put myself in a position where I am getting brutally beaten or I am taking punishment,” he told the Daily Mail.
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Different market
There won’t be much interest in this exhibition bout outside of Japan and Mayweather noted that last weekend’s trilogy bout between Saul Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin was a box office flop,
“You know, record-breaking numbers have changed. I just got the feedback from the Canelo fight and somebody sent me an article and he only got 500,000 homes. That’s very, very low. For a fighter like Canelo it should be at the very top. It should be doing at least a million homes so it’s changed drastically. With Logan Paul I was able to do over a million homes so that was good.”
He thinks it has become easier for people to watch fights without purchasing the pay per view,
“Pay-per-view has changed drastically and people are finding a way to watch the fight without paying. It really hurts the fighters,” he said.
When the dust settles… the king remains the king! @Canelo#CaneloGGG3 👑 | @hennessy pic.twitter.com/32oWfHqHWS
— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) September 21, 2022
Risk and reward
Getting hurt is not something that Mayweather plans on doing. He is content to earn big pay days for three round fights against complete novices because the rewards massively outweighs the risk,
“I’m not going to fight just anyone though because I am not going to put myself in a position where it is rough and tough. It’s about working smarter, not harder and I am getting smarter in life. I had a great career because the less you get hit the longer you last. As long as I am not taking any punches I am going to keep doing exhibitions and have fun.”
This will be Mayweather’s second time competing on a Rizin card and while he acknowledges that neither has been a ‘real fight’ the boxer says he loves to travel to new countries,
“Exhibitions are giving me a chance to travel more (and) to entertain people all over the world. I wasn’t able to do a real fight in Japan but they love when I do exhibitions. They love for me to come over and perform. It gives them a little bit of a chance to see the old Mayweather. It’s a great feeling.”
