Tenshin Nasukawa Has Vowed to Knock Floyd Mayweather Unconscious in Their Upcoming Exhibition Fight on New Year’s Eve…
You might not know who Tenshin Nasukawa is just yet, but the young Japanese fighter is determined to make sure that you will when 2019 begins. The 20-year old is set to take on Floyd Mayweather in an exhibition match, headlining RIZIN 14.
Things got weird when Mayweather announced that the fight was cancelled, claiming that he was misled. He later went back on those comments, after RIZIN and ‘Money’ were able to come to some agreement regarding the rules. He insists that it will be an exhibition of three three-minute rounds. One that will see him get very highly paid, and be pure boxing.
He might want to tell that to Tenshin. The unbeaten kickboxer smells blood and he’s determined to make a statement on the biggest stage he’s ever been on. This fight might not mean anything in terms of professional record, but KOing Mayweather is something that nobody else has ever done. He wants that scalp.
Tenshin's been a roll since his fight
Post fight speech "As you all probably know, on NYE I will be fighting Mayweather. I am going back to practice tomorrow until NYE to be able to definitely KO him. I will absolutely knock him out"
— Naokick fan (@Karaev_Fan) November 17, 2018
KO
Despite his relative youth, Tenshin is one of the most feared kickboxers in the world. He’s just coming off the back of a win over his fellow Japanese, Taiki Naito. In case anybody was in any doubt about how seriously he is taking his upcoming match against Mayweather, he said in his post-fight interview:
“As you all probably know, on New Year’s Eve I will be fighting Mayweather. I am going back to practice tomorrow until New Year’s Eve to be able to definitely KO him. I will absolutely knock him out.”
Those are fighting words. A lot of people will tune in just to see if he can do it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAwoEcQ4SCs
War
Chael Sonnen has said that Floyd Mayweather should be expecting a war. This might be officially an exhibition match, but Tenshin and RIZIN will have no intention of being set up as sacrificial lambs. If Mayweather doesn’t take this seriously, he could be facing a very nasty night. Sonnen said:
“If he thinks even if he has a legally written contract that it’s going to be an exhibition, meaning at the end of three rounds or at the end of nine minutes they both smile and hug and walk away, he’s wrong.”
Whatever Mayweather thinks, this isn’t going to be fun and games. There’s too much at stake for Tenshin to throw it away.
Advantage
Even so, Mayweather should win. He has the physical advantage over Tenshin, who has never fought before as a pure boxer. We’ve seen how ‘Money’ dominated a physically more intimidating opponent like Conor McGregor, who has a similar background to Tenshin.
