Floyd Mayweather will be returning to Tokyo as part of an exhibition tour he is calling ‘The Heist’. The multiple time boxing champion certainly didn’t swindle many English fans last month as very few people bought tickets to see his fight with reality TV star Aaron Chalmers.
That match in London took place in a half empty arena and afterwards Mayweather complained that English fans were reluctant to spend money. It clearly hasn’t put him off the exhibition boxing business though and he unveiled ambitious plans for 2023 with ‘The Heist’ set to take in five countries on three continents:
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Easy wins
You would imagine the event in Tokyo would be on a Rizin card. Mayweather has already competed in two separate exhibition boxing matches put on by the Japanese promotion.
At Rizin 12 he faced Tenshin Nasukawa. The difference in size and experience was vast and Mayweather stopped the Japanese kickboxer in the opening round.
Last year he faced Mikuru Asakura at Super Rizin. He is a similar size to the American, unlike Tenshin, but Mayweather still stopped him in the second round.
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New country
Tokyo isn’t the only city in Asia that will host an exhibition match involving Floyd Mayweather this year. He will also be heading to Seoul, the first time he has competed in South Korea.
Last year Manny Pacquiao made his exhibition boxing debut in Seoul with a routine decision win over DK Yoo. It isn’t clear quite how much money this show generated but Mayweather intends to follow in the footsteps of his former rival.
It will be interesting to see which opponent he has in mind for his bout in Seoul. Having gone the distance with Pacquiao it is possible DK Yoo might be negotiating with Mayweather.
There are no shortage of mixed martial artists on the Rizin roster who would be willing to challenge Mayweather. There is also the outside possibility the promotion might try and put together the long awaited rematch with Pacquiao.
