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Sport

31st Dec 2018

Floyd Mayweather insists he’s still retired after steamrolling Tenshin Nasukawa

Darragh Murphy

Floyd Mayweather proved yet again that there are clear levels to boxing

Mayweather’s exhibition bout against Tenshin Nasukawa on Monday afternoon looked every bit a boxing great against a youngster in an unfamiliar discipline.

‘Money’ needed just over two minutes to convince Nasukawa’s corner to throw in the towel after dropping the Japanese prospect three times in the first of three scheduled rounds.

Giving up over 20lbs in weight, Nasukawa looked like a rank amateur against the 50-0 legend and was dominated from the opening bell.

Rizin’s logic in paying $9 million to have one of their top prospects humiliated just for the sake of one successful pay-per-view event has been called into question but Mayweather definitely made more fans aware of Nasukawa and he paid tribute to the kickboxer after the one-sided beatdown.

“I want to say thank you to Tenshin. This don’t go on our record. We are both still undefeated,” Mayweather said in his post-fight interview.

“He is a great champion and a great fighter. I am still retired, I don’t look to come back to boxing. I came back for entertainment for the people of Japan.”

Mayweather might say he has no plans to return to the ring but he is still in incredible shape and has always been tempted by lucrative paydays, as long as he is able to stack the odds in his favour as much as possible.

The 41-year-old has previously spoken about a potential rematch with Manny Pacquiao, having bumped into his Filipino rival in Japan in September.